Weekly training recap and good heel striking.

Mon: Rest!
Tues: 3.2@10:30 easy +  2 2x20s running drills + weights
Wed: 3.2@10:05 (HR 110) + 20 min swim @ 3.5
Thur: 3.2@10:30  w/3 x 30s hill sprints (~7:30 pace), 2 2x20s running drills, 8 x strength training
Fri XT: 30m bike, 15m ellip, 15m/3.1km row (3 x 1m sprints to 15kph) , 5 min weights
Sat: 2.2@10:00
Sun: 8.8@9:30 (122 HR) 


Wednesday's run was interesting. It was my normal flat  loop for 3 miles,  but I noticed my HR was pretty low during the run. At the end the average was 110..normally it would be around 115. This is one of the lowest HRs for that pace I've seen in quite a while.


Jill had me only 20m of swimming this week....just as well after doing weights the day before. Swimming is a great exercise to double train with on the same day as running, IMHO.


I survived Thursdays trifecta of 3.2 miles running with hill sprints, running drills and strength training. I can tell I'm much stronger that last time I was trying this and my calf was fine this time.


Killer XT on Friday with my favorite of rowing last as usual and the hardest. When I started doing this I could only do about 2:45-3min/500m pace, now I can do <2:30. 


Saturday was optional running. I hoped to do all 4 on coaches plan  but only did 2.2 miles due to other commitments.


Sunday I took the extra 2 I didn't run Saturday and tacked it onto the 7 called for and did 9 ..heh heh. Is that legal Jill? That distance allowed me to finally get back to doing my favorite baylands trail loop from my house..YAY!  Here's the splits:

Split	Distance	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Avg Cadence
1	1.00	09:40	111	86
2	1.00	09:24	124	86
3	1.00	09:39	123	86
4	1.00	09:18	124	85
5	1.00	09:19	124	85
6	1.00	09:34	124	85
7	1.00	09:40	123	84
8	1.00	09:25	123	85
9	0.82	09:16	125	84

I kept the HR under my aerobic max (125) and even so saw my pace at a solid 9:30 average..with no fade. I felt great the entire time and wanted to put the hammer down several times but did not...my HR upper limit alert (set to 128 bpm) vibrating to tell me to STFD. 

I find when I think about future or past races, or I see people ahead of me going fast I often subconsciously speed up. If I spin out and daydream about other things besides running, I slow down. 

My aerobic pace breathing has changed in the last 2 months. I noticed a few weeks ago I've started doing 2:4 breathing (2 leg strikes on the inhale, 4 on the out). 3 years ago I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool 2:2 or 2:3 man.. I'm wondering if the swimming effected this? When you swim you do a lonnnng exhale and then a quick inhale......

Does anybody else notice their breathing cadence? I often listen to other runners to see what they are doing, especially in races.

Im doing the psoas muscle pressure stretches 2-4 times per day and it seems to be helping it be less tight.  The 'tweaky' feeling in my hamstrings (which the PT said is really just the nerve getting messed with because of other problems)  has been getting less and less noticeable since I have been doing these stretches. It's great I don't have to worry that it's a muscle thing...but it will be nice if it goes away completely.

I meet with her again on Tuesday for the next step.

If you recall I spoke about trying to drop some weight a while back. I've not had much success... until the last few weeks where I really buckled down..weight is down a couple of lbs but the bigger change is that I am obviously leaner (using the pinch method in various places) and this is because I have way more muscle than ever before. 

This is completely due to the strength and weight training coach Jill has me doing.  I'm actually very happy with the weeks spent not running and all the new things we've gotten into. It is fun to have bigger muscles 8). 

My % body fat is down a couple of % so far if I had to guess (recall it was ~18.6%). The bodyfat scale feature is worthless...goes all over the place. 

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Here's a great post about when heel striking is just fine on one of my favorite fact/science oriented blog, runblogger.  Those of you that wonder if your heel striking will bite you down the road can read his post...makes a lot of sense (as all of his postings do).


Hope y'all had a great weekend!