Photo courtesy of Andrew King - D4 Productions

Friday, October 31, 2008

6 myles - no time

Lone Tree loop - 1:00 p.m.
Too nice to pass up
mind/body - good
easy effort

I list this as an easy effort but really had to think about it while I was out there - was it easy? I've evaluated my effort lately because of the comment AJayDub posted about easy effort.

For me, I base my effort solely on breathing: not breathing hard, conversational pace then it's easy; can't talk during a run, good sweat then it's medium; if I'm breathing hard, good sweat, and I get the taste of blood in my mouth then I know it's hard. Very rudimentary.

I've been running for nearly 28 years and outside of high school I have never had a coach - I just run based on feel. Having said that, I've learned there is a 2 degree separation between my easy and hard efforts - 2 degrees meaning 2 minutes per mile. Easy effort is around an 8 min pace, hard effort is around a 6 min pace. I physically can't go slower than 8 min/mile unless I walk (which is usually the case in 100s), it hurts too bad.

So there you have it AJayDub, with a 2 degree of separation I don't get much faster than I'm running right now, no matter the season. So I'm far from being "the man". I'm waaaay behind a long list of very talented runners in the Ultra field to include you AJayDub. I'm just happy to be out there with you all.

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