Skip to main content

A nice run with a negative split!

Since today is a holiday (BC day) I slept in a bit had a good breakfast and hit the trails at 10:00 am. I was just going to run a slow 8.2 Km or two laps around the university. I felt really heavy at first and my speed felt much slower than the effort I was putting into it. It was considerably cooler today than the past two weeks but I was still feeling a bit slow. I decided to crank up my effort from my average 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being race day effort), to about 8 or 80% of race day effort. So I really began to crank. I finished my first lap and hit my split button on my watch and kept going. I was pretty tired but was still giving a good effort. I checked my split time and realized I had finished lap one less than 22 minutes which is a first since starting my intense training schedule. I decided not to stop at lap one but to keep my effort up around 8. I saw quite a few people on the run so I began to use them as an excuse to really crank, you know, so I could try to look cooler than I really am. Finally on the last Km I saw a strong runner in front of me about 100 meters and I noticed I was catching him. So I just really pushed. I used some top secret visualization techniques (I can't divulge since I will be relying on the strategies to give me a leg up during my races this year) and began to close the gap. With 100 meters to go I had closed the gap to less than 10 meters and then the guy veered off the trail and I finished my lap and hit stop on my watch. I was super stoked I had improved my time from my previous lap by 4 seconds, a negative split, my first since this bout of training! I was pumped. I came home showered and filled out my log, browsed some running sites, and wrote this blog. I think I am going to take the fam to check out some new trails I will be running on soon for my long weekend runs. I love running what a great facet of my life.

Comments

Tim said…
Might as well call you speed racer. Keep it up man, I can't wait to be able to train a little more.
August 3, 2009 at 7:35 PM
echoplex89 said…
lydiard began experimenting with long distance in 1944, when he was 27.
March 5, 2010 at 7:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Running Syncope (Losing consciousness after running)

I went for my Saturday morning run today just like any other weekend run in the past. I had planned on running with a small group of people in the morning but thought I had missed them when I noticed their cars were at our meeting spot but no one was around, so I ran on by myself and thought I would see them along the run. I felt pretty good this morning and had a really fast pace. I haven't been sick this week but I could tell I was just a bit off the last 3-4 days. I blamed it on stress from writing my PhD proposal but now I am wondering. I saw someone running quickly about a full Km ahead of me (it is a very straight and flat course). I thought I could catch them in the next 10 minutes so I pushed pretty hard. I met my goal on caught the runner about the time I veered off to run a different side trail. I hit my turn around point and decided to cruise back to my car. I was only running 6 km in the morning and was planning on a steep and technical 20 Km run in the evenin
5 comments
Read more

"The Van Aaken Method" vs. "The Lydiard Method"

I just finished reading a book by Ernst van Aaken Called "Van Aaken Method". I am a huge proponent of long slow distance and started working towards the "Lydiard Method" way of training earlier this Spring. Van Aaken was experimenting with long slow distance before Lydiard, as early as the 40's. Though both methods are quite similar there are some slight differences. I experimented with both over the last bit and have merged the methods into a plan that works well for me, with my plan resembling Lydiard's method the closest. These endurance centered methods are the extreme opposite of the tempo or interval training methods that experienced popularity in the middle of the last Century, the premise of which is to run many anaerobic intervals (using more oxygen than you can breath causing lactic acid to form) without full recovery between intervals. What is Long Slow Distance? In a nutshell the theory involves running every day and running as much mileage
4 comments
Read more

Why I Run

I needed to write about something other than my studies today, and so I decided to finally start a post on my postless running blog.  This will be a short post to kick-off my running blog, and will only discuss a brief reason or two with more to come on this subject in the future (I am writing this post instead of an important paper that is quickly nearing its dead line).   Running and I sort of found each other.  I can't think of the exact moment that I wanted to start running.  One thing I can say for certain is I knew that when I began to run there would be two important aspects that would dictate what kind of runner I  would be.   First off, I knew I would prefer trail running.  I have always been an obsessed outdoors man and have had a deep love and respect for the wild places of this marvelous planet.  I am a very solitary border line-hermit when it comes to many things.  The solitude offered by trail running was very enticing.  I love adventure and challenge.  I think that r
2 comments
Read more