Hollywood Shuffle

Tonight was the first run in over a year. I think the last time I ran was the NYC Half-Marathon last summer. I've been one the bike pretty good for 9 months, so the legs are strong, the heart is strong, the lungs are strong. I should have been clipping this evening.

Not so much.

I could bring my speed around reasonbly quickly for Disney in January by tossing in a bunch of high-intensity work. But that's not how I'm going to approach it this time. Since I have bigger, longer-term goals (Muskoka 70.3, the eventual Ironman), I'm taking the longer-term mindset. I've been re-reading my Lydiard and Maffetone, and some Jack Daniels. Long miles with a HR cap are the order of the day until a certain speed is built up.

Because I haven't run in so long, my form sucks. Knees weren't picking up, no lower leg involvement. That will shake out over the course of the next few weeks. It's muscle memory, so it'll come back. Because my form sucks, my HR kept spiking at every little effort. Again, efficiency is the key. All my training will be based on distance and HR. I don't care about speed until at least November. My plan is to do the first half of every run at ~145 bpm, and the second half at ~150 bpm. I want to build a heeee-yuuuuu-ge base, so I can build an ever bigger peak. I'll run slow now so I can run fast later.

Run: 4 miles, not timed (but sloooow), 2 miles @ HR 145-150, 2 miles @ HR 150-153

(Oh, there was a 3 mile jog with a friend the day before the NYC Marathon. THAT was my last run.)