Long Progression

This morning started with a sunrise ocean swim at Kaimana Beach (in town). I used to swim there all the time but it's been a long time since I last did. Funny though, it hasn't changed and honestly this morning was really nice- water was glassy and clear and overall quite enjoyable. I wore my wetsuit so I wouldn't have to whine about being cold, plus, my friend who I was swimming with is faster than me so I figured the wetsuit would help me keep up (it did). I had the thought while I was swimming that it's interesting that 100% of my swim training partners are a notch or two faster than me. For whatever that's worth.

Instead of driving straight home, I went around the long way so I could make another attempt at the long run... Thinking it would be fun to run somewhere new for a change. I'm typically pretty lazy and end up always running from my house. I can be a bit of a hermit though so it's good for me to venture out. I started at Sandy Beach and ran into Waimanalo backroads. It was along this coast.

I should drive to runs more often.

I used my heart rate monitor as a leash the whole way out... la la la HR cap 150 which mean trotting pretty slowly and taking short walk breaks as necessary (up most hills). In the first few miles I let myself feel frustrated. I had a memory though from back in 2013 after Vegas 70.3WC... That was a shitty shitty race for me. The following week I remember strapping my HR monitor on and running 10 miles and it was eye opening b/c as the run went on, I was getting slower and my HR was getting higher. I actually came home and logged in my notes this giant A-HA! I was pretty proud of myself for discovering the problem- somehow even with all the insane hours of training I had done that year, my aerobic fitness was shit, which is why I was racing so poorly. But then my coach at the time wrote back and he said PUT YOUR HEART RATE MONITOR AWAY IT IS MESSING WITH YOUR HEAD. Um, what? I had just discovered concrete facts about my lack of aerobic fitness and probably should have listened to my gut back then but I didn't and I went along with the training program and finished out the year with another shitty Ironman where I fell completely apart. So given that memory, I slogged along and jogged and trotted and walked my way through 9 miles, keeping my HR in the 140's.

Then I turned around, and since I felt totally fine, decided to make it a bit of progression run and see what happened. It's been a while since I've done a controlled progression run like this so I was curious. I gifted myself 10 extra beats for the next 6 miles. And since my fitness is different now than it was back in 2013, that meant I got to run faster. :) I wasn't really micromanaging pace, but on avg it was ~45"/mile faster than the way out, which is about right for +10 beats. I still felt quite good, so at mile 15 I hid my water bottle that I had been carrying behind a rock (you know it's ON when I drop my water bottle), and gave myself another 10 beats for the last 3 miles. It was fun to jam home, long progression style, and finish ~90"/mile faster than I started!

I took off my shoes, garmin, HR monitor, visor, and iPod and went straight in the ocean when I was done. I do think floating around in salt water has got to be about the most enjoyable thing you can do post long run (assuming you wore Coeur Sports gear and don't have any chafing!)

I hadn't been in the water at Sandy Beach since I was in college (I know, right?!) It brought back all sorts of memories of Saturday mornings and being super hungover (sorry mom).

My legs are legit tired now and I have that pounded feeling for sure. I made the mistake of checking the Steel Challenge log and saw that Sue lifted big today and is now like 1000lbs ahead of me in the standings. Dammit. I'm gonna have to go to the gym tomorrow. If my legs don't recover overnight I'll be bench pressing a lot.