Training Log Archive: iansmith

Warmup run before my mile time trial.

My mile time trial, which I am using as a benchmark for running progress. The result from my mile performance as a function of time is more of a heuristic because of varying conditions. For instance, today the track was icy and laden with intermittent goose droppings; the ice was naturally the most significant factor. This makes comparison with my previous trial less obvious because the track conditions were ideal previously.

Anyway, I'm ecstatic that I broke 6:00, particularly given the conditions. While I'm confident that I have been able to run a six minute mile previously (some time ago), I've never measured one explicitly.

On my previous effort, I ran slower than planned on the first three laps, and then pushed it on the last lap. The difference between my fastest split and slowest was five seconds (4th and 2nd laps respectively).

My splits for today's run were:
1:18
1:33
1:32
1:29

While this is a bit bizarre, I overcompensated for my tendency to take time trials slowly at first and speed up at the end. I think I could have run faster if I had set a 1:26 or 1:25 pace throughout, e.g., but I think pushing very hard at the beginning helped me set the tone for the race in general. After I measured my first lap split, I realized I was going way too fast, so I deliberately slowed. Noting my second lap split, I realized that if I could maintain that pace, I would break 6 minutes, so I sought to do that.

My breathing throughout was 2/2, and my throat and nose hurt at the end because of the cold air. Curiously, my muscles felt fine at the end of the run; the limiting factor was my intake of and ability to process oxygen.

I'm going home to El Paso, Texas for two weeks during the holidays. The elevation of El Paso is about 3800 feet, and there exists a road over the mountain that peaks at 5230 feet. The mountain itself apexes at 7192 feet. I will do training at altitude, which presumably should improve my ability to process oxygen. I hope to break 5:45 at my next time trial in Boston, particularly if the track conditions are superior. I'll probably also run one in El Paso to gauge the impact of altitude on performance.

Cool down run after the mile. Running time (2300) is a guess because I forgot to stop my watch for stretching.

This week, I was outtrained by the indefatigable Bob Lux. I suppose this shouldn't be that surprising, since running more than 3.5 or 4 hours per week is unrealistic for me now, but I can add more cross training to compensate. Surely a virile athlete like me can sustain up to an hour per day of low to moderate intensity cardiovascular activity.

Over the break, when I'm home in El Paso, I will aspire to 7 hours/week, with a strong upper limit of 30 miles of running.

Doing something once per day as opposed to my typical rate thus far of one event per two days would certainly help.

Time is a guess, because I left my watch at work. A low intensity run with a river loop. During my run, I contemplated two math problems that have been troubling me lately, and solved one. I wasn't thinking about my breathing, so while I started at 4/4, I caught myself at 2/2 while working on math (and talking to myself).