Easy run plus 1 short hill sprint. Average pace: 10:13.
Hill sprint: 9.42 sec @ 6:18/mile.
Outside temp: 33°F. Wind 11.5 mph from the south.
Last night I was reading Daniels' Running Formula and he talked about how you should have a cadence of about 180 steps per minute and suggested that to learn to run at that cadence, you should try running at that cadence but shorten your stride length to maintain the pace that you're supposed to be running, rather than speeding up because of the increased cadence. So I gave that a try on my run this morning. I checked my cadence periodically throughout the run by counting steps for 15 seconds. I always got 44 or 45 steps in 15 seconds, usually 45. So that puts my right at 176 or 180 steps/minute. At first it felt more tiring and my shins were hurting a little, which is really unusual for me. After the first 3 miles, I picked up the pace a little while keeping the cadence the same and that felt more comfortable and the shin pain went away.
I did one hill sprint at the end because that is what is prescribed by the training program I'm doing. It seems kind of silly to me to do just one hill sprint, but whatever. I used the same hill that I was using a couple of months or so ago when I was doing hill sprints, only the marker I used to use was gone (it was liter anyway) and so I just guessed when I had gone about the right distance.
My training program says that tomorrow should be a rest day or cross-training. I think maybe I'll do the shred, which I haven't done for at least a month and then go for an easy 3 or 4 mile run. I've been running 6 days/week for quite a while now and I don't see any sense in going down to 5 days/week because the training program says to. The training program has 5 days/week for the first three weeks and then goes up to 6 days/week with the exception of three different weeks later in the plan. | 