December 2, 2007

Sunday, December 02, 2007
Slept late and took it easy again today. It’s much warmer (about 25-28 degrees), with no wind and buckets of latent moisture saturating the air. I didn’t want to get caught up in any macho crap, what with this bug trying to get me, but I knew the schedule called for eight miles today, plus we’re expecting 12-20 inches of snow in the next 36 hours (I love snow on my birthday!!!!!, but it makes for fun short runs, not long runs). I dug out the heart monitor and told myself I could go as far as I wanted as long as I kept the HR down. I also did a full 25 minute Wharton warmup stretch. Once on the road, I quickly correlated HR, perceived effort and breathing pattern. 3/3 goes up to 140 and feels very comfortable; 3/2 goes from an easy 142 to a tempo-esque pace at 150. I didn’t go over 150, and only hit that momentarily on the steepest upgrades. I kept it mainly from 142 to 145, which felt pretty low stress. The nicest pace was in mile 7, where there was a moderate steady downslope with a snow-dusted shoulder which allowed me to run easily at 142, breathing 3/2 and covering ground at 180 steps/ minute and 6:30 per mile.
Total distance 8.0 miles in 1:11:20. Wow. That actually felt like a long run! I feel good, just a little chest congestion. 8:55, 8:43, 9:04, 9:21 (36:05 out), 8:38, 9:06, 7:49, 9:44 (35:15 in)
Tomorrow I’ll run 49 miles on my 49th birthday.
Unless it snows.