Variations

Daily Quote: "If you run at the same pace on the same surface in the same shoes all the time, the tissues of your lower extremities face a tremendous amount of repetition in the type of stress they experience. Impact forces will concentrate in the same spots to the same degree, stride after stride, workout after workout, causing damage to accumulate." --Brad Hudson and Matt Fitzgerald, from their excellent book, "Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach," pg 44.

Today is interval training, which will be the same 4 x .50 mile format as last Saturday, but I plan on changing the stress a tad by wearing my racing shoes, "ASICS DS Trainers," rather than my stability shoes, "New Balance 720" that I wore during my last interval session. The lighter racing shoes should also lower my cardiac drift, which last week was quite high at 186 bpm. I normally save my racing shoes for races as they wear out very fast and are expensive to replace, but I wish to have strong training sessions too, hence I'll be throwing my sense of thrift out the window this season!

9:30 a.m. 4 miles. Life Fitness Treadmill set at a 1% grade. Warmup: 1 mile at 6.0 mph (10 minute mile pace). Intervals: 4 x .50 mile at 8.3 mph (7:13 minute per mile pace). Jog Intervals: .25 mile at 6.0 mph. Cooldown: 1.25 mile at 6.0 mph. Average heart rate 154 bpm. Cardiac drift: 180 bpm. Shoes: ASICS DS Trainers. My heart rate numbers are considerably lower than last week, which I attribute to the lighter racing shoes rather than any adaptation from training.

My right ankle was slightly sore after my training today, I wonder if I should lower the treadmill's grade to zero next week? I like to have a slight grade on the treadmill, which helps duplicates the effort of running on the roads, although the treadmill's belt elevation may cause extra stress on the ankles. I could lower the grade, and to counter the lesser elevation by increase the treadmill's speed.

Next Saturday I plan on adding a 5th half-mile interval and perhaps lower the grade to zero...if that works well, I'll increase the speed the following week.

Tomorrow will be a short and easy recovery run on the roads as I strive to acclimate to running in the heat for my upcoming 5k race on July 4th.