Race Simulation

I wanted to get a bit of a race simulation workout in as today's workout was going to be my last real quality workout. I decided to run 2 miles @ Race Pace (track) + 4.25 mile tempo run (road) + 2 miles @ Race Pace (track). I took a 3 min jog recovery between everything, and this was only because it took me 3 min to get from the track to the road and back.

I started out on the track and ran a very controlled and evenly paced 2 miles in 13:54 (6:57/mile). I averaged 89% of my max HR during this segment.

It took me three minutes to jog from the track to the road where I would do my tempo run. I then proceeded to run 4.25-miles over hills in 27:50.8 (6:33/mile). I wanted to try to keep my heart rate between 90-92% of it's max, but this was extremely difficult and I couldn't manage to run any faster. My average heart during this segment was only 89% of my max. Early on I was in my goal range, but I only managed about 13-minutes of total running in this zone. Maybe I was a bit over ambitious with my goal. Good run none the less, I expecting the total time to be a bit slower than this.

It took me 3 minutes to jog back to track, where I finished my workout with a controlled and evenly paced 2 miles in 13:54 (6:57/mile). During this part my average heart rate was 85% of my max. This portion felt quite easy and I felt I could have run significantly faster the last half-mile if I had to desire to.

It was a good workout, though I'm a bit concerned as I've noticed that it is taking me longer and longer to get warmed up. I've noticed that I never feel good in the first 20-minutes of any run; however, after that I feel good whether I'm running for another 20 minutes or an hour. I think this is evident by tracking my heart rate vs paces during this workout. I know this is a sign of good aerobic fitness, during my race next Sunday I won't be able to stop and jog 3 minutes after the first two miles so I'm going to experiment with a longer/harder warm up a couple times this week to see if that helps me get warmed up so that I don't overwork the first quarter of the race with my heart rate any higher than it needs to be. I just hope I don't over-do the warm up on race day.