Air Resistance

I'm back for a short time in the Gord after a weekend in Phoenix watching Ali and Joel and Chrissie to their thing at IM Arizona. And, by the way, in case you were wondering, Jeremy and I both stood in line for 3 hours to pull the trigger and sign up. I then went straight to Little Rock (love love love Southwest Airlines -- I wonder if they'd like to sponsor me?) and on to Germantown for Thanksgiving. I got to meet my brand new niece who is so sweet and tiny. And growing right before our eyes.

In the training arena, I had a "recovery" week during this trip, but I'm not sure that 42 miles in the week is quite low enough for me to recover. So I changed it to 22 miles. I'm always expecting (the 3 times I've been back to sea level-ish altitude) to run minutes per mile faster. I hasn't happened yet. 

I read in Daniels's book-- I think-- that while running at altitude provides less oxygen per breath (therefore vo2max is lower), you have lower air resistance so you should get some benefit from moving through the air more easily. Ok, um, from my experience, air resistance is not my problem. Yes sometimes wind can be a factor, but on a normal-wind day, that's not really what I consider to be my limiter. Although maybe that's why I can maintain the smokin' speed of 8 mph up the Ski Apache mountain...hmmm.

It can get windy here in the basin. We're between two mountain ranges that are 60 or so miles apart, and it's very  flat down here. Today's workout included 5x1000 at 5k pace, which I really can't even guess right now. So I decided on 7 min/mi pace. The first one was slightly uphill and I amazed myself by averaging 6:40 pace. Must be the new inhaler. But that's a story for another post. I turned around on the same road for the second interval and immediately noticed the wind. Not awful wind, but the first thing that popped into mind was air resistance. I should probably blame my slow speed on bad pacing, but it was downhill and I averaged 7:11. Argh. Immediately upon finishing that 1000 I realized that I HAD to go straight back to the house. I forgot the big effect of that taking-off-from-speedwork-of-any-kind-and-then-starting-again has on me: a need for a close bathroom. 

I walked/ran the 3/4 of a mile to home, where my Garmin decided I was too close to the computer, so it proceeded to download part one of my run. I then amazed myself by actually going back out to get in 2 more miles and 2 more intervals. I normally would've called it a day, but I'm really trying to follow this plan. I did compromise and go 0.8 miles  and one interval short, but redeemed myself with my second interval. Ok, so it was downhill, and still slower than the first one, but the pace was also 40 sec/mi faster than the third one. But I think it was with the wind. 

I know a lot of records were set at altitude in the Mexico City Olympics in like 1968, but just how many of these events require the aerobic system? The 10,000m, the marathon....how long do the cyclists ride? Maybe the 1650 swim-- not that the air resistance would matter. But for sprinting, it's ideal.

I'm still wavering on this marathon in Phoenix. We drove the course, and not only is it flat, it's kind of scenic too. But what's holding me back is this thought that I won't be any faster there. The air resistance will be much greater. How much more psychological can I make this? :)

Tomorrow I leave for Las Vegas to party it up take the USAT Coaching Certification class. I'm really excited to be "certified" even though I've been told that level one focuses on training elites. But I'll be official! And looking for clients. Preferable elite clients. j/k :) Jeremy is coming for the fun stuff-- going out at night and running the half marathon. Brett Michaels is the post race entertainment. If that's not a reason in itself to go, I don't know what is.