... aka get to the top before the legs realize what you're up to.
Recently, I've been experimenting with how I do my training runs, including "attacking the hills," varying the pace during a run, and running at a faster than "normal" pace and trying to sustain it through the entire run. Nothing new in any of these; the latter is basically the tempo run. But, I just haven't regularly worked them into my runs. Anyways, what I find more intriguing are not the particulars of running techniques, but rather what seems to be some kind of breakthrough. I can't quite put my finger on it, but my running just feels different now. I feel more confident of being able to recover during a run, after a stretch of exertion (e.g., sprinting up a hill). I'm leaving much less behind when I finish a run. My recent training paces have been close to my usual 5K/10K pace, which means I should be dropping my 5K/10K times. The first test of this was Turkey Chase this past Thanksgiving; I ran that 10K about 2.5 minutes faster than my times in previous years. This faster time is still some 10 minutes slower than my 10K PR (39:36), but I now feel that traversing those 10 minutes back to my PR is definitely a realistic goal, even so many years later. :) Last weekend, I ran one of my 10-mile training routes, which had been a tough run back in July of this year, about 5 minutes faster than my previous best time. No water, no food, no stops--quite a contrast with that July run. Does all this mean that, unlike the aging curve, the adaptation curve is not actually a "curve," but rather a stair-stepped function, driven by a kind of running version of punctuated equilibria?
