How many miles did you run today?

[FlyingMonkey]

The one I use goes:

Zone 1: Recovery pace (a pace you can literally belt out a song without trouble)
Zone 2: Endurance pace (fluid sentences & paragraphs. A little breathy towards the upper limit.)
Zone 3: Threshold pace (a sentence here and there.)
Zone 4: Interval pace (paces you can hold for 2-5min sustained w/ jogging recoveries. maybe a word or two at times.)
Zone 5: Repetition pace (paces you can hold for 1-5min per bout w/ standing recoveries. maybe a grunt is possible.)

Mine is similar (based on Daniels):

Long (Easy) - 50-60% effort, <1/2 of my running volume is in this area year-round; 2/3 in the first three months.
Steady (Marathon) - 60-70%, about 1/5 - 1/4
Tempo (Threshold) - 80-90%, whether pure tempo or distance intervals, about 1/6 to 1/5
Intervals, hill repeats - 90-95%, about 1/8
Sprint repetitions - 95-100%, not doing any of these at the moment...

'Race pace' is actually much less specific than these and varies between 70-100% depending on the distance.
'Recovery' similarly depends on what you are recovering after! It's not necessarily easy pace or slower.

I don't measure heart rate, so I judge this based on breathing and pace. Of course this means that as I achieve certain paces regularly, I then adjust my expectations. So my current paces are a lot higher than they were when I was coming back from almost nothing in 2019.

 

[Fueco]

Mine is similar (based on Daniels):

Long (Easy) - 50-60% effort, <1/2 of my running volume is in this area year-round; 2/3 in the first three months.
Steady (Marathon) - 60-70%, about 1/5 - 1/4
Tempo (Threshold) - 80-90%, whether pure tempo or distance intervals, about 1/6 to 1/5
Intervals, hill repeats - 90-95%, about 1/8
Sprint repetitions - 95-100%, not doing any of these at the moment...

'Race pace' is actually much less specific than these and varies between 70-100% depending on the distance.
'Recovery' similarly depends on what you are recovering after! It's not necessarily easy pace or slower.

I don't measure heart rate, so I judge this based on breathing and pace. Of course this means that as I achieve certain paces regularly, I then adjust my expectations. So my current paces are a lot higher than they were when I was coming back from almost nothing in 2019.

Where I go wrong is thinking of marathon pace as race pace. Because so many of my races over the past 13 years have been marathon or longer, I just call it race pace in my head, which leads to momentary confusion when doing rep pace intervals.

Starting this week, I’ll be returning to more structured workouts. For the one or two of you that follow me on Strava, that’s why I’ve started uploading runs again. I’m going to do my long run tomorrow while our van is in for service. Last time I did that was just before the pandemic hit Colorado.

 

[Dusty Heaters]

@Churchill W - Sounds like you’re probably around the right area then. LT threshold is suppose to be the pace mere mortals could sustain for about 40-50 minutes, elites about 60 minutes. Though, if I were you I would keep all that stuff in my back pocket and just keep running consistently week over week. Your easy pace should drop gradually and when that plateaus you might want to mix in some harder work should that suit your goals.

@FlyingMonkey - I reference Daniels VDOT as well, in addition to McMillian and Tinman online calculators. They’re are relatively in the same range, just broken out in varying degrees of granularity depending on which you reference. I rely mostly on my power meter data and that seems to mesh well with the calcs also. Having multiple reference points that correlate feels comforting.

The perceived effort bit is something I’ve struggled with. It requires about 85-90% effort just to get out of bed each morning, sometimes more. I don’t really know how high is up and how low is low…but the talk test references help as it’s something actionable.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Yeah, I really don't know with the perceived effort either. For example: I just did a 16.6km (10.3 mile) steady run, and it felt easier than the 13.2km easy pace run I did the day before. 1:20:08, or 4:50/km (7:47/mile). Maybe it was the light rain and an easing off in the humidity.

 

[Fueco]

Went climbing with a friend up in Boulder Canyon. We did three 5.8 routes on granite (we both led two of them, and I only followed the third route since we were running out of time).

 

[ultravisitor]

Five miles of interval running followed immediately by another three of just walking this morning.

I took the week off from weights.

 

[Dusty Heaters]

2mi WU, 8:21/mi, 136 bpm
~3.1mi Race, 6:13/mi, 165bpm (19:17 at 5k)
2.4mi CD, 8:48/mi, 144bpm

Jumped in another local 5k this morning. **** show performance. Mid-70's, low 70's due point, sunny conditions. Decided not to adjust for it and paid. First mile felt about right then hell started breaking loose. Took two wrong turns that added distance to the course. Shoe came untied. A random half mile of lumpy grass. Cicadas to the face. Looking back it was hilarious. Surprised to be 2nd OA.

Splits: 5:53, 6:20, 6:25

Good experience and learning. Will better adjust for heat/humidity going forward.

 

[Fueco]

8 miles on the local bike paths after I dropped our van off for an oil change. I ran on the paths along the middle and south forks of Boulder Creek. Temps in the mid 70s (dew point is 41). Pics are from my turnaround points at 4 and 7 miles.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I was up at just after 5am today for my long run, trying as much as possible to beat the heat. Today was another quasi-trail run like last week, but longer at 29.3km (18.2 miles). Generally I felt far more comfortable than last week too, I think because it's much less humid today. So my average pace was actually less than for the shorter run and I even managed a bit of an acceleration in the last 2-3km. Overall: 2:49:40, which is 5:47/km (9:18/mile).

And this week as a whole, I've run over 70km, 70.7km (44 miles) to be exact, for the first time since early April. I won't be keeping this up through the summer because I just don't need to, but for next week at least it's going to be even more (87km or 54 miles) overall, before I take it down and taper towards my attempt at doing a 56km (almost 35 mile) trail run in the first week of July. I would have been doing longer distances at this stage without the injury interrupting things, but since this trail run isn't a race any more (another COVID cancellation), I can take it much easier.

 

[Dusty Heaters]

12.1mi, 8:21/mi, 137bpm - Z1 long run

7:30am, 74f, 71 dew point. We’ve been receiving intermittent downpours and scorching heat here for the past couple weeks. I have a deeper sympathy for caught lobsters at this point.

I’ve had a nice block of training these past 6 weeks and I think it’s time to take profits. 45-48 miles, 2 workouts and an appropriate long run per week - really good for me. Next week I’ll drop volume and intensity to freshen up.

 

[ultravisitor]

My legs are seriously beat, so no running for me today. I gotta drop the mileage and intensity for a bit. Between walking and running, I've gotten over 90 miles in each week for the past few weeks. This past week was especially crazy, but the weather has been awesome and Chicago is opening up and people are out and about again, so I can't resist being outside.

 

[Churchill W]

Great day to be out running yesterday. Cloudy and about 64 F with little humidity I think.

10.2 miles fartleks yesterday with an average pace of 8:00/mile. Fastest mile at 7:24 and slowest mile at 8:27.

Almost took a fall, but caught myself. Ended up stubbing my ring finger catching myself from the fall, but that was the worst of it. Left knee began bothering me again at mile 4.25, but only lasted about a mile and it went away.

 

[Dusty Heaters]

6 miles, 8:13/mi, 130bpm -- Zone 1 jogging

What a difference a slight temperature drop makes. Mid-60's and low 60's dew point felt glorious. My HR wasn't climbing out of the 120's until the sun started coming through.

 

[kjb]

5 miles yesterday with my daughter in the stroller. easy pace, 8:50, which felt good as it was cool but sneaky humid, my shirt was soaked when we finished.

i really wanted to do more this weekend as i ended up with only 2 runs and 13 total miles for week. i've been ping-ponging the last few weeks between like 10 miles and 20 miles total (20 is right around where i like to be plus or minus a few). i'd like to keep it more consistent but life has been getting in the way. i've been trying to tell myself that this is temporary and i'll be more consistent once things settle down but i'm sure you guys understand the drive is always there and the feelings of "underachieving" are hard to temper.

 

[jbarwick]

8.4 miles Saturday evening due to midday heat. It was flat on the greenways and enjoyable as not many people run during the evening on the weekends. Yesterday was 9 miles on the trails. Temps were in the 90s with due point in the 70s so it was miserable. 60oz of water wasn't enough but I slowed down towards the end realizing this. Felt good for the most part during the run given the conditions. Finished up with an ice cream cone afterward before heading home.

I started taking magnesium over the past year and have to praise its benefits for a second. Given the rough conditions yesterday, cramps were non-existent compared to times before I would take magnesium but still drink electrolyte drinks. This is my first tough summer run while on in but thinking I may have found the cure to cramping for hours after a run.