Three-Mile Recovery Run

• Posted: July 18, 2008
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• Author: Shéamus
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• Filed under: Workouts
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• Tags: No tags set for this entry.

After logging 10 miles over the past 48 hours, I was feeling pretty beat-up today. I slept badly (and for less than three hours, after work) and because I’m planning a longer run tomorrow, I felt an easy run made the most sense today. Furthermore, the weather is back to being worse than hideous, and my nemesis, the evil wind, has returned with a vengeance.

Still, as I said yesterday, with all this practice I’ve actually become a reasonable wind runner. I’ve noticed that just lowering my head very slightly can make a difference of perhaps 10 seconds per mile to my average running speed. Very strange, but it’s so easy to do and you don’t feel any different. I guess it just makes me slightly more aerodynamic.

Still, the wind does continue to make a massive impact on my average speeds - anything from 20-30 seconds per mile depending on its severity and how in the open I am at any given point. Mile #1 was right into a swirling headwind and my 7:51 is actually pretty reasonable.

I reached my turnaround point (which is now slightly longer than before) around the 1.5 mile mark and you can see the immediate impact it had in my chart below.

I always seem to find my legs around the 2.25 mile point and really went for it today, actually running a sub-7 minute pace for about half a mile. My third mile was a solid 7:23.

Splits and chart:

It’s so refreshing to see data that shows me getting faster over the course of the entire workout!

I’ve already logged more miles this week than last, and I have one day left to go. As said, I’m planning to do a longer run tomorrow - hopefully my longest yet, with the goal being to run more than one hour, and 7+ miles. As usual with these longer runs I’ll be setting a slower pace, aiming for around an 8:30 average. The only obstacle might be the weather - it’s forecast to be a bit mixed tomorrow, with a temperature of 68F and winds of 18-20mph. Usually I’d do my longer runs on a Sunday, but my Garmin tracks data beginning on that day, and my goal this week was to log more than 30 miles (I’m currently just below 25). Next week I’ll change things around and try and get the Sunday run going as preferred.

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