Posts Tagged ‘tempo’

I’ve been lax on my blog duties this week: one post, no newsletter, no video. Thanks to the Financial Marathon, I’ve been knee-deep in web domains and keyword research, ultimately ending up with 17 new domains!  That’s a lot of new websites to build.  I love researching with a passion and when I’m in the midst of it, it’s all I want to focus on.

So I bought the domains, did the graphics in one fell swoop, then started figuring out ways to automate a lot of the work as much as I can. Thanks to iMacros and Excel, my system’s just about down, so then it’ll be a matter of rinse and repeat and then I buy another handful of domains.  That’s where I’m going to focus my Spring work concentration.

I know I said a few weeks ago that I’d like to ultimately monetize this blog through writing ebooks and eventually attract paid advertisers but I’ve since changed my mind. What’s the phrase? “Don’t shit where you eat.”

Not that I eat here, but this blog is my baby and I write it because I enjoy it, so to mix money stuff into it just feels wrong. Plus, I really love being an anonymous web builder, just doing my thing out on the interwebs with no one knowing my business. It’s the lurker in me, I guess.

Runs!

I’ve had a solid week of good running and enjoying myself out on the roads.  The weather suddenly broke, as I’m sure most of you are experiencing.  Woohoo!!  Shorts and shortsleeves…heaven.  Picking up where I left off last:

Wednesday was a 9-miler at 8:25/mi.

Thursday I had a 14-miler in which I wanted to do some tempo miles but I got out there and something was going on with my back.  It was very windy which didn’t help, I think I was hunching over or something, so I bagged the quality and had to stop and stretch a few times, which I never do.  So that was 14mi@8:44.

Friday was a lovely day off.

Yesterday was an 11-miler with 5 tempo.  It was pretty windy again but I did ok, with 5@7:19, 7:53/mi for the whole run.   The tempo portion started out not so great, I looked down and saw 7:25 which was just about my targeted MP last cycle, but I wasn’t surprised since my paces haven’t been so hot in general.  Over the bridge I slowed down even more, but when I got to mile 4, I said fuck this, and sped up.  My HR was higher than it should have been for tempo pace, but I didn’t care.  I just wanted to know I could run faster.  So the last couple miles were 7:05s.  I needed that.

Today was a strangely good run, a 17-miler @8:31 that started out tired, likely thanks to yesterday’s tempo, but it was beautiful out so I took it to the trails.   The trail starts 5.5mi from my house and for that whole portion I was pretty draggy, but when I got into the trail, it was like a switch turned on.

There was snow, mud and puddles but the air was cool and crisp which felt amazing against my bare legs and arms.  Just doing all the fancy footwork energized me.  It became a game of wending my way around the few walkers to find the least puddly bits and not slip on the snowy patches.

I took a gel at 1:25 into the run (trying to be more consistent with that) and as I came back out onto the street, I held the energy up enough to play speed games against some unsuspecting runners, running the last 5 miles in 7:58s.

Weekly Wrap-up

All in all, it was a great week.  The decision I mentioned last post about speeding up a bit in general made my weekly average 8:28/mi, when it’s been around 8:40ish previously.  I had some ankle tightness the last couple days but right now it feels fine.  Mileage total was 68 miles, so nothing huge but hopefully, juuuust right.  I’m thinking with the warmer temps this week, I might find it easier to get close to my old paces again.

I won’t push, but I’ll certainly take note since this is basically my second year as a “serious” runner.  I consider Winter and Spring 2009 to be my running puberty as the new paces emerged, so now that I have something to compare to, I guess I can call this my running adolescence.

Now if I can find an old hygiene class textbook, I’ll be set.

Question For You

You may have noticed recently that with the social media lake I’ve jumped into, plus the newsletter (oooh, people signed up…scary), the site redesign, the videos and some writing projects I’m working on, that I’m on a mission to steer this blog into something more “real” and increase readership.

It’s all a fun experiment at this point and I’m happy to talk about it as it goes and grows, but in the meantime, I was thinking about you guys.  Is there anything you especially like about this blog or would like me to talk about more?  It seems I don’t talk much about the grand subject of running lately, just what my workouts are and I wonder if you’d like more running talk or if you find the personal stuff more interesting.

A lot of you guys and gals have mentioned the word “inspirational” to me in comments or emails when talking about this blog, a word that I find undeserved and unconnected to, since it seems I spend the bulk of my writing whining about life’s annoyances and with that last race, any inspiring I might have done should have been rescinded.  Nevertheless, that word keeps hitting me, because I want to provide inspiration, I can’t think of a greater honor than that.

With that word in mind, I was thinking it’d be cool to start doing some Skype video interviews of other runners who are inspiring for one reason or another, but since super duper great runners don’t inspire me as much as make me think they’re martians from another planet, I was thinking about runners that are closer to where we are, like a sub-3 marathoner who’s been running for only a few years, or someone who’s made a difference with charity running or one who’s come back from a bad injury.  The main thing would be, people in whose footsteps we can aspire to follow and not from miles behind.  Would you like to see that?

What else would you like?  I feel a little silly asking straight out like this, but I can’t think of a better way to know what readers want than to ask.  After all, if not for you, I might as well be mumbling to myself in the kitchen – it’d be just as effective and require less typing.  So please, don’t be shy…speak.

My Runs This Week

So far, things have been going fine, if not gangbusters.  It’s cutback week so the mileage is a tad lower.  Monday I had a slow 6@8:54 and Tuesday was 9 w/4 tempo.  The tempo miles were 7:20s, avg pace for the run 8:01.  What was nice about it was that my heart rate is finally moving southward, not in leaps and bounds, but there is a definite downward trend.  The tempo pace, while on the slow side, syncs with Daniels for a 4-mile tempo and I’m sure I’ll be faster when it’s not 32 degrees.

Yesterday was 7 recovery, filled with cramps from impending Lady Time, so it was a most unpleasant run.  Then today was 11 and my plan was to do 3MP but my right quad has been a bit achy recently and when I started the first marathon paced mile it wasn’t feeling good, so I went back to easys.  No biggie, my schedule rearranging from last weekend mixed with an impending blizzard on Saturday means I have 10 w/8MP tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be ready to roll.

And that’s it from QuestionMark Central.  Please don’t be shy about giving your opinions or thoughts on what you’d like to see here. I really, really want to know.

Later, sweet things.