May 21st, 2009 –Half Marathon Training Easy Run

Another easy run today.  Not really much to report on it.  My body has adjusted to running again, almost like a trip hammer.  I don’t really understand how or why, but I’m back to my heart rate being back where it should be for this sort of pace.  My muscles ache, some due to the strength training, some due to the 10 mile run, some due to a lack of flexibility that I still cannot get past.  All in all, though, my heart rate was back where I expected it to be.  I only got into zone 3 for about 7 and a half minutes and that at the very end of the run.  That’s where it should be.  When I was running in the cardiac training, this pace was close to what I’d warm up at, which was leaving me in zone 1 for 5 minutes.

I still don’t quite understand the mechanics of these training sessions.  There’s no indication of a warm up or a cool down, just the pace and total mileage for the run.  I could obviously make those two components part of the total miles, but that seems to change the nature of the run.  I’d have to run much faster in the middle to make portions of the run much below the pace, so instead I’m just adding distance onto each side of the run.  That means instead of the 5 miles it states, I’m actually doing 6.  I don’t know how that will affect the overall program, but I just have become so accustomed to doing a warm up and cool down that I cannot escape the need for it psychologically.

Housekeeping:  6 miles in 55:10 for a pace of 9:11 per mile.  579 calories burned!  That is an amazing number to me.  The pace for the run yesterday was 6 seconds slower, and burned 70 more calories.  It is almost as though my body remembered I was in better shape.  I don’t know how to explain it.  It gave me hope though that this training will pay off in dividends when it comes race time.

One last bit of tangential information.  My feet no longer have any issues.  Damned shoes!  I guess that was one painful lesson to learn.  I’m just glad I got it all resolved before I took on a race of this distance.  I don’t know how I would have handled the blisters for 13 miles!

Cheers!