Return to the Roads!

Daily Quote: "Train at your goal pace. It there's a certain time you want to achieve in a race (such as a four-hour marathon), figure out the pace you need to sustain to achieve it (in this case 9:09 per mile) and include workouts at this pace as a regular part of your training." --Bill Bowerman

Today I ran on the roads! I live only two blocks from the "Las Vegas Marathon" route and in the past have trained on it frequently, I'll undoubtedly do the same strategy this fall.

9:00 a.m. Recovery Run. 6 miles. Time, 58 minutes. Overall Pace, 9:40 minute miles. Out and back on Lanning Route (partially traverses the "Las Vegas Marathon" route on Torrey Pines). Warm, 83 degrees with 6 mph wind. (Note: my maximum heart rate is 190 bpm) Average heart rate: 141 bpm. Cardiac drift. 145 bpm. Ran very slowly as to gradually adapt to the harder road surface. No aches nor pain, but could have brought extra fluids as I downed the small bottle of water before the three mile mark. Las Vegas will eventually get cooler during the month of September and the sooner the better!

I'll be easing into road work with my Recovery Runs first, then next week my General Aerobic Runs, the last to be added will be the Medium-Long Runs and Long Runs. Hopefully, by October most of my runs will be on the roads. I will keep my future speedwork training on the treadmill where I can control all the variables.

I have to admit, it's so much easier just to step out my front door and run, rather than having to travel to my gym's treadmills and changing clothes...I'll save at least a half-hour every day! I need to figure when to squeeze in my weight circuit training, maybe after work at 2:00 a.m.

Last night finished reading, "50/50: Secrets I Learned Running 50 Marathons in 50 days -- and How You Too Can Achieve Super Endurance," by Dean Karnazes, which was a wonderful book chock full of helpful suggestions, hints and ideas. In the future I'll post a daily quote from the book.