Hal Higdon Training: 4 Mile Run

Here is a little something I picked up for my upcoming Trail run - a First Aid Kit!

I got this little sucker at REI and it has everything in it that a injury prone person like myself could need - bandages, gauze, scissors, tape, antiseptic spray, bee sting stuff, stuff for pain, stuff for your stomach and much more! I am ready for the trail run!

Back on the horse today!

Got up early and put on a long sleeve running shirt and a knit hat - It was only 40 degrees - which is like the end of the world for us Texans!

The good news is that today's 4 mile run was very strong. My legs felt great and with each step I got progressively stronger. According to my training schedule this run is supposed to be an easy one that lets you recover from the long weekend run. That is exactly what today was! The 4 miles was done in 37 mins which is about a 9:20/mi pace.

On Sunday I blogged about how difficult the 12 mile run was and I'm not taking any of that back. Yesterday I felt awful all day long. My body was sore all over. Last night I actually took a heating pad with me to place under my neck and popped aspirin all day long. Luckily though I recovered enough for today and am looking forward to the 9 miles scheduled tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning is 9 miles.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Hal Higdon Training: 4 Mile Run

Higdon's plan called for an easy 4 mile run today and that was exactly what I did!

Actually slept in to about 7am! Since the Steelers were on late last night I didn't get to bed at my normal early hour. It was actually fun to not run in the dark for once on a weekday.

The weather was a little warm out, around 78 degrees, so I decided some hydration was needed. I was going to wear my nathan's hydration belt with gatorade in one of the 10 oz containers but Annie suggested I try the hand held container she has been using. She doesn't really like the hand held container because it starts to hurt her arm after a few miles. It straps to your hand and has a compartment to stores keys and stuff. I only filled it up 1/2 way (10oz) and really enjoyed running with it. I barely even noticed it was in my hand! I think on my under 5 mile runs this is going to be my hydration mechanism of choice from now on.

Here is what it looks like:

As for the run, my legs were a little sluggish. They still felt fine but I had to focus to get myself in the groove. I wanted to keep myself in the 9-9.5 min/mile pace time and I did with a total run time of 36:50 over 4 miles.

Tomorrow morning at 5am Annie and I are scheduled to run 9 miles. This should be a good test of my conditioning of where I think I am and where I actually am relative to my upcoming 50k event.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff