From Coach Jen: a Descending Long Run

I mentioned in last week's "best long run ever" post that I maybe needed to look back to Coach Jen's workouts that she gave me before the 2010 TC 10 Mile. She got me to a sub-60 finish in that race, and I'm NOT LOOKING TO DO THAT AGAIN!! I just figured I'm in good enough shape right now to do some of those workouts.

She's the one that really got me used to descending workouts. And she's the one that got me turned on to doing "race pace" miles in the middle of runs. She's really left a lasting impact on my "training style."

A workout in my training log from Jen in early Sept of 2010 was a 10.8 mile long run with a few miles easy, and then descending 5 miles every mile until I was hashed. And then cool down for the rest. That's quite similar to my "normal" long run (which has been OBVIOUSLY influenced by Jen) with 3 minor differences: I usually do 6 miles harder instead of 5, I don't make it a point to descend EVERY mile, and I finish going "hard" but not "all out" (I make it a point NOT to walk after my harder miles, when this workout was OK to walk for a bit before the cool down).

So I was ready to hit it hard, although I didn't know if I could beat my splits from my great long run last week - it was a cooler day for that long run, and that helps a LOT!

In 2010, I ran the descending hard miles in 6:22, 6:25, 6:12, 5:52, and 5:47.

Two days ago, I ran those same hard miles in 6:30, 6:21, 6:09, 5:56, and 5:53.

NICE!

My half mile splits weren't a perfect descend, but I'm not a miracle worker and that wasn't the goal. My 4th split barely broke the descend, and then 2 out of the last 3 were a bit slower (partially because of hills):

3:17, 3:12, 3:10, 3:11, 3:06, 3:03, 2:54, 3:01, 3:02, and 2:50

My fast splits with the last one being some walking and running for my cooldown.


Overall pace. Tempo in red. (Not sure what the slowdown is about a half-mile in.)

p.s. In my training log from 13 years ago, I noted doing this run out in Ohio without having known mile markers. This was well before I had a Garmin. So I borrowed my wife's Garmin. So in my training log, I noted this: "Did this run out at Cedar Point in Ohio. Ran with a GPS (never do that - hate that)." IMAGINE THAT. Me... hating running with a GPS?!? Who was this person 13 years ago! Hahahahaha!!