What's My Name?

Due to some scheduling conflicts this past week (read: laziness) I had moved some of my runs back a few days and was facing an 8 mile tempo run on Saturday after having just done an 8 mile run on Friday. Combine that with the fact that I have yet to complete an 8 mile tempo run at the suggested pace (9:00 minute miles) and you have a recipe for a VW Jetta run if I ever saw one. I was not looking forward to Saturday's run, but I thought I would go anyway so that I could at least log the miles.

I started out with a nice slow warm up mile, knowing that this run was more destined for failure than that kid in my macro economics class who always wore a helmet and drooled on the desk. I began to pick up the pace at the one mile mark and for some reason unbeknownst to me I also decided that this would be a good time to play around with my stride. I have done this in the past in an attempt to get closer to 180 strides/minute, which appears to be some kind of magic number.

Instead of focusing on how fast I was going, I was focusing on shortening my stride and increasing my turnover speed. I got to the end of the first tempo mile in 8:45 which means that I was a touch too fast (that may be the only time you ever see that phrase in writing on this blog). At the end of the 5th tempo mile I was still on a 9 minute mile pace and was feeling pretty good. This is huge for me because lately I have been fading around the 5 mile mark on my tempo runs and by mile 6 or 7 I'm way off the 9 minute mile pace.

I took a Cliff Shot and kept my focus on shorter strides, faster turnover. I wasn't feeling tired at all, in fact I felt quite superhuman. I was up and over the hills that usually cause me problems without even feeling them. By mile 7 I knew that I was easily going to complete this tempo run at the suggested pace. Nothing was stopping me know. I finished up the 8th tempo mile in a time of 1:11:38 which is a pace of 8:58 per mile. Who's the man? What? I can't hear you. Who's the man?

This was a major breakthrough for me, and I don't often boast on this blog but I felt great after that run. I finished with a cool down mile bringing the total to 10 miles in 1:30:45 and even with the warm up and cool down added in that averages out to a 9:05 minute mile pace. This is the first time during my training that I've really felt like a sub 2 hour half marathon might be possible.

Of course, I came to find out later that Amy had just run a 15K at a 7:58 pace! Thanks a lot Amy! You couldn't let me bask in the glory of my 8:58 pace? You just had to rain on my parade! Some friend you are!

Stride Rate

I ran 5 miles last night and the ankle felt a little sore but generally pretty good, I even did 3 tempo miles at an 8:54 minute mile pace. I played around with my stride rate a little which is something that I’ve been considering doing anyway after reading this article.

The article claims that almost all elite distance runners have a stride rate of roughly 180, which means that every minute they take 180 strides or steps. For the mathematically challenged among you that equates to 3 steps per second, or so my calculator tells me. I personally don’t put a lot of faith in that calculator because just the other day I asked it what 1,329,502 * 4 was and it told me “BOOBIES,” which is the answer to many of life’s questions and while it caused me to giggle like a schoolboy reading Moby Dick for the first time, I’m quite sure it’s not the right answer.

Getting back on track, my natural stride rate is around 160, which is a good indication that I’m not an elite athlete. Also a good indication: body fat percentage of 22%, a diet that includes hot waffle sandwiches and feet named 'slow poke' and 'molasses'. Despite all these inadequacies, I have on a couple of occasions shortened my stride and managed to get to 180 strides per minute. I was able to do this for a couple of miles at a time and it resulted in significantly faster times, the downside was that my legs got tired a lot quicker and felt sore in places they don’t usually. I doubt that 5 days before a race is a good time to start messing with your stride, but it’s definitely something that I’m going to look into after the Bolder Boulder.

*tee hee* BOOBIES and Moby Dick all in the same post. *snicker*

Alright, how many of you grabbed your calculator and multiplied 1,329,502 by 4?