Sunday's Cruise

A fun 10 mile "big hill" run had me back up on the Ridge today. The last front has dumped cool and unstable air into California so the air was crisp and the skies filled with billowing cumulus as I began my run.

I focused Sunday on the pacing strategy I'll need for the 50K run and fine tuning my running cadence to keep the effort well below anarobic levels during the first half and steepest portions of the run.

It was also 'geek' day, as I futzed with my heart rate monitor to try and set a cage around my expected work load. I used 122 as the low end of my running range and 156 as the top. Go below the range, I'd get an alarm and know to speed up; too high and it was time to walk/reduce my stride.

Off I went. The first 2 miles of this run are a pretty descent ascent, so 3/4 of a mile into the run, my upper end alarm started to sing out. Now, the first 2 miles are also the most heavily trafficed with runners and bikers and the section I'm most likely to have an "alpha" moment. Today wasn't an exception, so up I climbed "ding a linging" like a ding dong. Hitting the top and clear of "competitors" I slowed my stride down and settled into comfortable 135 bpm over the next few rolling miles of trail. Descending into the next valley, I occassionally had to increase my stride to keep above the lower threshold level. After 4 miles, and just before the steep 1 mile climb up to my turn-around point, I calculated I was averaging 10 minute miles over the 1500' elevation gain of the course. Not too bad! On the climb to the halfway point, I slowed my pace to stay within my limits and twice slowed to a brief walk in order to get my heart rate back into the zone.

The return trip was pretty much a mirror image of the first segment. The gauges were in the green and I was feeling pretty good. No residual soreness the next day seems to indicate that this was a good pacing strategy to keep me out of destructive anarobic levels that will be unsustainable over my 50k on the Ohlone.