Thursday, July 28, 2011

Working Hard is Hard Work!

So I finally made it out to run with the West Toronto Pacers on Tuesday.  It's been at least 2 weeks since I've run with them as work has been completely insane.  We did one of our many 9+km routes at tempo pace.  Oh my god did I ever suffer at the beginning.   My legs felt like crap and my pace was slow.  It took me a while to actually get warmed up as well.  Once I did, I started to feel a bit better.  The route we ran was quite hilly as well.   Downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back.  Fun!  I found that once I warmed up, the uphills weren't that bad.  I actually managed to motor up them without too much bother.   Don't get me wrong, they were tough, I just seemed to be able to handle them a bit better than normal.   I'm wondering if that is down to the strength workout I've been doing.  I also noticed that I didn't feel too much lactic acid build up either.    I actually finished the run stronger than I started.  Hmmm....maybe there is something to all this strength training?!

I finished a hilly 9.75km run in 46:44 with an average heart rate of 165.  That put me at a 4:47/km avg.  The goal is to get down to 4:40's by the time I peak for Scotia (I need to maintain a 4:44 pace to run 1:40 but I'd like a bit of padding).   I've got 12 weeks to work on that.  It's going to be tough but if I'm consistent, I should get there.

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