Tuesday, April 27, 2010

LSD v. Speed

So in my marathon training I feel like I've worked my body into pretty good shape. I feel comfortable pushing myself in various areas, because I feel like I can handle it. Obviously for marathon training though I've mostly been doing LSD and yesterday I tried speed for the first time in a while. I thought I was going to die from this. Trying to push myself up a 1 mile run to the cliffs of Bristol after a mile warmup was harder than I thought. I was unable to run up the entire mile, as you can see its all uphill, and its rock hopping as much as anything else. Oh, and I probably should clarify, speed=speed workout and LSD=long slow distance (high school cross country). This was also one of the first times I ran while carrying my camera in my hand, not so bad, but I still want to get an arm pocket so I can store things, including cell phone in case a catamount attacks me...although cell phone probably won't save my life in that situation. This picture is of Bristol Cliffs from my parents house. I drove to a point a mile from the bottom of the trail to give my legs a little warmup. The second picture shows just how "user-anti-friendly" this run is. I don't know if you can judge grade, but this is decently steep (i'm taking these on the fly, no time to stop)
I goofed around with my camera and tried to take pictures of my legs running (downhill part) which was equally as grueling. Imagine how sore your quads get when you walk back from a hike, now try to push yourself down, after having just run/climbed 1 mile up.


My 4.1 mile loop total was about 46 minutes total. Which gives me an average pace of about 11:12. My first mile was 8:12, my second mile (all incline) was 14:48, my third mile (decline down sketchy rocks) was 13:27, and my last 1.1 was at a 8:50 pace. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time my heart rate was so high compared to the first .25-.5 uphill where I tried to push as hard as I could before I took a climb break (not calling it a walking break because it wasn't relaxing or slow paced) My calves are on fire today, and its convenient that I decided to take today off, because....it has been snowing since 8:30 this morning, it's not sticking where I live, but in the hills it is absolutely accumulating...crazy stuff.

5 comments:

  1. You would not be doing this today without breaking your neck. There is lots of snow here and it is absolutely sticking! I love the picture from the ledges. It is a very rewarding hike for my school kids as they can find their houses and see the school and all that fun stuff. You are rugged to run it!

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  2. Great photos! I'll end up on my face taking those. I'm old and slow so I rely mostly on my LSD runs nowadays.

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  3. Wow, that is a killer hill. They always do well to get my HR up in the million bpm range

    You did a really good job grabbing a picture of your legs.

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  4. Wow. This looks like a beautiful but grueling run. Thanks for taking your camera with you so we can all see it!

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