Thursday, October 08, 2009
Ran a tired 1.5 miles
I felt tired this morning, partly due to a minor surgery I had yesterday for the removal of a big cyst on my arm and partly due to insufficient sleep the past couple of days. I stopped after completing the out-back of the new northbound path that I've spoken of many times. My wakeup heart rate was 55, which is good, but my energy level was low.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thank you for your blog, first of all. I am training right now and have my 2nd 5k coming up next Saturday. I ran into a bit of a set back this week, but I keep telling myself it isn't the pace I go, its the RACE I want to finish while still running.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your 5K! One concept in running is that of a negative split. This means that the last half is run faster than the first half. To do this, you have to go out slower than your emotions would have you do and maintain a constant pace. Then as you near the end, you use the energy saved from going slower to increase your speed and finish in a blaze of glory. Another good technique is to do an even split and run a constant pace for the whole race. Many of us run positive splits in which the first half is faster than the last half. We go out too fast in the beginning, get tired, and run slower and slower as we near the end.
A lot of people get into trouble by trying to set PBs by pushing themselves during their training. That works for young kids, but it is safer for older folks to trade time for speed work. Rather than try to set a PB with every race, just do a good race and let the months roll by. Your speed will increase naturally as you get stronger.
Another suggestion, Jennifer. Use this week as a taper week. Don't push for speed this week. Reduce your distance slightly this week. Get good sleep this week. Then, you'll begin the race well rested.
ReplyDeleteHi Allen
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, and more power to your elbow for keeping it going at 73 - at 46 I already find bits and pieces of me refusing to do what I want them to when I run, so heaven knows what I'll be like when i get to your age. One non-running thing intrigues me: if you're from Utah (or the US in general), where do you get the word geezer from? Is it in general use over there? I always saw it as a particularly London thing - we might say someone's a 'diamond geezer', ie a really good bloke. Or we might say geezer just to refer to someone whose name we don't know, in a fairly neutral way. Anyway, keep running, and stay injury free!
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteThe younger kids probably don't use the word. However, to my generation of Americans, a geezer is an old guy with particular, strange idiosyncrasies. I decided that if I were to be old, I just as well might take advantage of being old. The name of the blog does attract attention. I have a non-running blog called "An Old Geezer Looks Back" (http://geezerlooksback.org).
I liked your post today because I'm holding out this week for my second half marathon on Sunday. I need sleep more than anything else! Thanks so much - such good advice.
ReplyDelete