Running fast

On Thursday morning I got to do a 1:30 run with 1:15 at IM pace. My average pace for the 1:15 main set ended up at 6:43/mile with an average HR of 154 bpm. I did this run on a route with some rolling hills. Here's a graph of HR v. pace:

I notice that it took me about 10 minutes of running at IM pace to get my HR up to its steady state level at that pace. I added a horizontal axis to the graph right around my steady state HR (that is, my average HR excluding the first 10 minutes of the IM pace portion of the run), and it looks like my average HR for the last 1:05 of the run is closer to 159 bpm than 154 bpm. 154 bpm for me is just above cruising, while 159 bpm is starting to work a bit - my breath starts to become labored compared to just deep breathing at 154 bpm. I also wonder how being stopped by two lights (the sharp downward spikes in HR) altered my average HR.

On the plus side, many roads were slick with a light layer of ice, and I'm pretty sure the lack of traction on those roads slowed my pace by a few seconds per mile. Still, I was able to cruise at 6:20-6:30 per mile on flats with a HR around 157, and that didn't feel like much work, so that's encouraging. Also, running uphill feels easier than ever, probably since my workouts have had a lot of focus on uphill running. On a side note, Stacey concurs with my uphill running assessment, and feels she's running better than ever. I'm trying to get her to consider what it would take for her to qualify for Kona, but I think she believes she's too far off qualifying times to do so - she just needs to get that bike time down (which should happen to some extent just as a result of doing another year of training) and then hang-on for the run. Of course, not every triathlete has to strive to qualify for Kona.

Looking at my run splits from IMLP '08, I did the first loop at 6:48 per mile feeling very, very comfortable. I slowed a lot on the second loop (mostly around miles 18-26), averaging 8:18 for miles 13-26. I'm pretty sure part of that slowing was due to a lack of calories consumed on the run (e.g., I had maybe 100 calories for the first 8 miles of the marathon), but I'm not sure how much of my slowing is attributable to my poor "nutrition" and how much is due to my lack of leg strength/endurance (or whatever it may be called physiologically).

Still, knowing how comfortable I felt on the first loop gives me confidence that I can run the whole marathon at that pace.

Oh, and the evening "flop" went fine. My stroke count is a comfortable 20-21 for normal swimming, and I can get it down to 17 or 18 when really focusing on it, though I'm not sure how long I could swim straight with a stroke count that low.