So many ways to work on speed...

February has been unseasonably warm which is a good thing (I think) at least for running, maybe not for other reasons.

Did a short race this month that finished on the hockey ice (more of a themed race but still fun).  Turns out it was just short of 5k so I'm not sure now about counting it for  PR (which it would have been were it an actual 5k and not 2.88 miles).  Did I mention before this is one of my biggest issues with races (when they fall short)?  I don't mind if they are a little bit long, but falling short is the worst race error in my opinion.  At least give the people the distance they signed up for.

Anyway I did post one of my fastest per mile times (8:43).  I only have one 5k race where I did better with 8:37/mile.  Not sure I'll ever break that one but I can dream. (Not with that attitude anyway, right?)  I keep reminding myself.

The majority of February has been spent doing some variations on methods to improve speed.  The main one has been heart rate training (sticking to the zone 2 I mentioned earlier) but also working on intervals specifically 800s which I have fine tuned to work for me and the watch/course availability I'm using.  I start out with a 0.25 mile warm up and then do 0.5 mile extremely fast (but not so fast I can't hold it for the whole time which is a trick to figure out) and alternate with 0.25 mile resting breaks which are essentially catching my breath and running slowly or walking if I need to.  The goal is that going this fast eventually won't seem so bad and I'll be able to hold faster speeds more easily.  Another type of run is holding a faster pace for longer than that (tempo runs), and yet another is progressive runs/negative splits (finishing my last few miles at a faster pace than what I started at).

This week I felt some success in running my 15 mile run at a progressive pace.  I was able to finish the last 4 miles the fastest pace of the entire run.  That felt pretty good to know I could still save some for the end.  My average pace was 10:27 which is not my goal pace were this a race, but was still a good exercise.

Probably the next major challenge will be holding close to (or maybe at) goal pace for a 15k that is coming up in a few weeks.  I'm going to see how I feel and what the weather is like the day of this run to see if it's reasonable to pace with the 9:00 group.  If I can do this, I'd just need to be able to keep this pace going for an additional 4ish miles and the sub 2 half would look more likely.  If I fail, something else might need to happen to get closer to that pace.  My plan right now is to try to hang with this pace group if it feels reasonable that day.  I'll know if something wrong physically that I can't, but will certainly try.

One thing I remember is that my record 10k was around the 9:00 pace that I'm seeking.  That also was achieved on a 70 degree super humid June morning.  Every time I start to doubt my ability to hold that pace, I try to think back to that 10k.

After this 15k trial, there are 2 half marathons I've signed up for that could potentially be good sub 2 attempts at this time.  The hard thing about late March/early April is that the weather is anyone's guess and ice/snow definitely can put a damper on things.  As well as rain (also not my favorite condition but can be tolerable). The second half is in late April so that might be  more likely if the course did not have a significant hill I have been warned about at the end.  If neither of these pan out, there is still a third option for mid May that I have in the back of my mind.  Once we get too far beyond that it's usually too hot to have a goal of this nature.  I'd have to then likely wait until October to try again.

Anyway, so many ways to work on speed and I've found it fun to try them out.  If I don't get the goal soon I can just keep working on improving overall speed for longer distances.  The 15 mile run this week gave me hope that this might be next... Eventually if something doesn't change I can always just train for another marathon... which I probably will anyway, just not sure how soon I'd be up for doing that again.

Heart rate training, a new way to work on speed?

As I have recently gotten a watch that tracks heart rate, I was interested in finding out what heart rate training could do for me.  I consulted a few friends who had done heart rate training before and was sent a few articles to read.

http://www.runandbecome.com/running-training-advice/the-secrets-of-low-heart-rate-training

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/joe-friel-s-quick-guide-to-setting-zones

Both pretty good reads... so basically my goal is to run 1 or 2 runs a week with heart rate zone 2.  Usually this will be my long run unless I have a speed training goal set for my long run.  My first long run that I've done so far I kept hitting zone 3 a lot.  It was really hard to pull the pace slower in order to stay in zone 2.  For me that is about 143 bpm or maybe as low as 133... a small range to try to stay in for many miles.  The other thing I noticed was at the end of the long run, I am more fatigued and keeping in zone 2 becomes harder and harder.

I did notice something that improved though.  My faster runs I seem to be improving cadence and getting a lower average heart rate.  I've been trying this for about 3 weeks now.

So this is a work in progress and I'm hoping to see if there is any real impact over time

As far as training, I do have a half marathon coming up in April and a few smaller races in between then.  I'm taking it as it goes and trying to be reasonable about my expectations.