Day 25, 26, 27 and 28

Day 25:
3 mile run again. Decided to do it after work and go on the treadmill and do HIIT again. Didn't feel the dead leg syndrome until much later on in the session, so I think Tuesday was a consequence of not doing HIIT in a while.

Day 26/27:
Rest days. Well - Saturday (Day 27) was either to be a long run or 60 min cross training day, but due to weather and garage sale, there was no way. Knees also felt a bit tender, but hoping that it is related to the pounding of HIIT.

Day 28:
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!! Very humid day today from all the rain. Thankfully, when I went, the breeze was enough to keep the sweat down a little and the sun was hiding. It was a 7 mile run day (it seems on Hal Higdon's program that you go 2 weeks of increasing long runs and then a 1 week decrease - I'm ok with this). Overall, the 7 miles went by nicely. My knees, specifically my right one, seemed to be a bit more pained than usual, but I'll wait to see what happens. My TFL/outer right thigh behaved quite well, so I have hope for it.

I also decided to put in a break at around the 5.5 mile mark. The distance Between the two aid stations of 4.53 and 6.71 is greater than two miles and I'm worried that I'm fatiguing my leg to much early on. Therefore, if I throw in an additional break, it should help lessen the strain. Not to mention, it's a nice mental break, knowing that I only have to run a mile instead of two until my next break.

As a compromise, I've set my 4.53 mile and 5.5 mile breaks to be 30 seconds. This kind of offsets the extra break.

One other very interesting thing to note is that on May 30 (3 weeks ago), I completed a 6 mile run. This was after one week of training. Here are some stats:
Distance: 6 miles
Avg Speed: 6.9 mph
Calories: 947
Peak BPM: 194
Avg BPM: 179
Time: 51:50

So - basically about 158 calories per mile.

NOW - here's after today's run:
Distance: 7 miles
Avg Speed: 6.9 mph (same speed basically)
Calories: 982
Peak BPM: 186
Avg BPM: 168
Time: 1:00:50

Look at the calories. Very interesting. Back in the beginning, it was approx 158 calories per mile. Today was 140! My body is now burning less calories per mile.

I think the true tale though is Peak and Average BPM. Both have dropped but average BPM has dropped significantly. I'm running further, but working my heart less.

Although - a more efficient running body means that I can't simply run for an hour to burn off an Applebee's dinner. Now I need to run for an hour and a half. D'oh!!