Perceived Effort

My recent posts have all been about my efforts to pump a little more leg turnover back in to my legs. Yes, the “going” is slow on this front. My progress during the interval session is not showing up as fast as I would like.

There does seem to be one area where it is making a change – medium long runs.

Twice per week, my training plans calls for a medium long run of 14 miles. One is on Tuesday and one is on Thursday.

Sandwiched between these two workouts is my Wednesday speed session.

Here’s what I am seeing.

On Tuesday, I cruise long at about 7:50 overall pace for the run. Wednesday, I hit my speed session. Then, Thursday, my run over the same course and at the same time of day is 20 seconds faster per mile.

Strangely, the perceived effort to me is the same. Some things are just hard to explain.

Explaining these factors is escaping me at the moment, but this change just became apparent over the last three weeks.

Certainly before I started my speed sessions, phenomenon was not present.  But I have noticed it in the past. Often, I will race on Saturday. Follow it with a long run on Sunday. Some Sundays, these long runs feel fast and easy.  Before this, the thought never really crossed my mind as to why.

Now, it has.

 

Sharing one thought at time,

The Cool Down Runner