First Hard Run! AND First Bike Ride!

Last Friday, I had my first real effort while running in 9 months (since early August). I had 8 weeks of easy to moderate runs (3x every week), so it was time to try a little speed.

I did my same boring "social distancing" run straight down my road as to avoid the busier paths along the river. Of these last 24 runs, only 1 has been along the river while the rest have basically looked like this:

I did a simple fartlek workout: I ran a total of 4.4 miles, and I just picked up the effort for 3 minutes at 3 different times (while running easy for 2:30 between them). Here's what my pace chart looked like afterwards:

The "efforts" highlighted in red.

My fast 3:00 segments were:

- 0.49 miles (6:08 pace)
- 0.49 miles (6:07 pace)
- 0.52 miles (5:48 pace)

(And both of my 2:30 segments of easy running in between were just under 8:00 pace.)

And my foot and my sore hamstring both held up FINE! I don't think my foot has any aversion to pace - I still just can't be on it for too long. So I hope to SLOWLY start adding in some speed. Not even weekly yet, but maybe every-other week. We'll see. It felt good/horrible (in a good way) to be working hard again!

Then 2 days later on Sunday, I got up and went for a ride. It was my first real ride of the year as I mentioned in yesterday's post. I figured it would NOT be fast and was just going to go "ride." After about 4 miles and getting ready to turn along the river, I noticed my average was 21.8 mph. I was SHOCKED! I hopped along the river, crossed at 35E, and went down to Big Rivers for a few miles.

Selfie I snapped at the turn-around.

Notice that elevation chart shows gentle downhill for the first 6 miles. And I didn't realize there was a breeze from the north. So even though I started with a 21.8 mph for the first 4 miles, I "hit the wall" around mile 13 (which was around 40 minutes which has been the length of my easy trainer rides lately) and felt like I was barely moving heading back into the wind for the last 4 miles. So I ended with a 19.1 mph average, which was more along the lines of what I was expecting pre-ride.

So that continues the streak of "first ride of the year that proves I am NOT a rock star" that has happened every year since 2006. #Consistency