Wow, I actually like to run now......

So, its been about 10 weeks since I started to train with heart rate and to listen to my body and follow a good nutritional plan both on and off training. Swimming seems to be fine, biking I still need to work at but I'm getting there but the running is what I'm seeing the most change in over the last 2 months.

Back in May when I needed to do a recovery run based on my heart rate you could say I was basicaly walking, if I was on a treadmill I would be at a level of less than 5.0mph, it was so hard to see that but my HR was high even though I was chatting and talking and didn't feel out of breath it was high so if I had to walk to keep my HR down I did, man that sucked. My zone 1 HR was a little bit better but not much.

In the past I would go out and run my runs always in the 8's somewhere and if I did tempo's they were in the 7's, I was working hard, and very rarely did I record my HR but I was always pushing and out of breath and working really hard, all the time. Well, 2 months ago my zone 1 ( or endurance run pace) was just about 11 min a mile- seriously, it was no joke, crazy slow, I was like you've got to be kidding me this is awful. But I listened to my body and I kept my HR were it needed to be, it sucked, but I knew if I wanted to make changes I had to do something drastic.

After 4 weeks of no speed work and nothing more than zone 1 runs, I went out and did several runs at 9:40 pace and kept my HR were it needed to be, 136 and no higher than 138. Wow, in just 4 weeks I was able to drop well over a minute per mile and keep my HR low, this was good news for me, I was very happy. Now, there were still several runs that were in the tens with the heat or with very hilly runs but overall I was getting to be pretty consistent with that pace and HR. What was also noticeable was that I was never really tired after a run, my body didn't feel like I just beat it up, I felt good. So onward I went and continued this process. Still, no speed work except for one track workout ( which had me do 4 1 mile repeats at 7:08 and faster) when I have only been running in the high 9's and 10's, it was crazy.

Then it was Providence 70.3, now as I noted before swim and bike completely unenventful ( so slow on bike but again just training and getting my HR to where it needs to be) but my run really came around and I felt great, and I negative splitted the run. I was really happy.

So, to today, (I biked long yesterday in the heat and did a 35 minute T-run ( zone 1- avg 9:49s off the bike), felt great), today was a zone 1 run of 1hr 14 minutes with 19 minutes of a zone 2 effort at the end. F/b some TRX and a recovery bike ride. I ran early today, 5:30am so it was cooler and much more comfortable to run in than what we've been running in over the last few weeks, that being said, I felt great and in the end I averaged an 8:55 pace with a HR of 137 ( spot on).

So, in 10 weeks I've taken off over 2 minutes per mile and kept my HR at 136-137. My long slow runs when I looked back in my files from last year where I was running 13-20 miles averaging 9:35-9:45 pace my HR was up to 152-156, that's a 20 beat difference and my pace now is faster on my slow long runs, this shit is crazy. No wonder I couldn't run off the bike in ironman or in 1/2 ironmans, I had completely wasted myself on the bike probably keeping the same high HR and then tried to run fast off and my HR was off the charts, I couldn't sustain that and that was why I falted and couldn't run. Retraining my body is helping me get faster and everytime I know I need to run I am so excited to do so. I am so excited to run off my bike. I'm really liking running now and am starting to believe that it might be possible I can turn myself into a decent runner. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do.