Time Flies

It's been a while since my last post. No real reason for that, except there has only been enough time for the staples of training and not the extras. As for my training, it's been going ok. Due to a couple of medical appointments and kids interrupting sleep a lot the training has been stripped right back. The key runs have been all there, a couple of the easy runs were missed and most of the strength training was dropped. To me that's ok if it is short lived and doesn't become a habit. In the short term it keeps running specific improvements rolling along. For genuine long term gains the extras do count.

My running is definitely getting better. The majority of my easy runs are feeling very comfortable and natural. The average paces for these runs have migrated from slower than 6:30/km up to around 6:00/km with what now feels like less effort.

At the moment one of the key runs is what I term an Aerobic Run. It is run at an effort level that is steady, a fair bit below the anaerobic threshold, roughly the Lydiard steady state pace or around the Maffetone MAF pace. To be honest I don't really care exactly how people want to define it. For me I want this run to generally sit within the range of 4:40-4:17/km (based on working towards a sub 2:45 marathon). Over time I want this run to progress from a key effort to something that can be completed for easy to moderate runs where other, usually faster runs are now key.

For similar effort levels my Aerobic runs, since being in training have progressed as follows (warm ups and cool downs of 2.5-3km enclosed these runs):

29/10 8.4km @ 4:53/km
6/11 9.6km @ 4:36/km
15/11 10.5km @ 4:13/km

At the basic stage of my training cycle I believe I will be best served by not increasing the pace of this run any further, but by extending the distance covered along with a gradual increase in frequency of these style of runs. At the moment I am building my aerobic capabilities and structural strength in order to handle the harder specific training and racing that come around next year.

On a different note, snake season has started. I've already spotted one not too far from where I was bitten last year. http://gohard.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/snake-season.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Race Report: Sandy Point Half Marathon

Surfcoast Century - Race Report

New Blog: Running Alive