Speed work analytics: what about the mind?

The left knee is still sensitive on most of the runs, enough to contain my eagerness to returning to logging 62 miles a week, an average I hold on for 8 consecutive years, before the pandemic. Some will call that a blessing... The famous "listen to your body" adage...

This Sunday morning, after watching an impressive win of France over Italy --that would be rugby-- and working on my CFO duties for one of a non profit I'm involved in, I went back to the nearby track. As I wrote at the end of my trip report to Saint Lucia last week, we live in running paradise, here in California. Better make the most of it!

Last week, I did 6 repeat miles. Coming back from a week of slow running in the Caribbean, the first mile was sluggish at 6:40 but I eventually push the pace to run the last mile at 6:06. This week, I had in mind of running as many repeat miles, each below 6:30.

To my surprise, I clocked 6:12 with relative ease so decided that was going to be the new bar for the series. 6:09, 6:07, 6:04, all separated by the same 2-minute rest, I was on a roll! Since I wanted the series to last longer than 6, I eased up a bit to clock 6:05, 6:06 and 6:05 for the next ones. I finally got to 6:00 on repeat #8, then 5:57 for #9, running 100 meters behind a kid doing a 1,500-meter test, timed by his father. I couldn't match that in #10 (6:07) and decided that was an indication that was enough of a work out. The best news, for me anyway, was to feel the glutes so engaged and participating into the leg work challenge of the combination of an even faster cadence (my default one is already high) and longer stride (that I need to regain).

It felt exciting to be able to hold at that pace, for a big change. Even more so as I didn't feel my knee at all (but I did on the slow 8-min mile back home). That workout made me think of my Chicago marathon PR when I hold that pace (6:01) for 26.2 miles. 21 years ago, time flies, and disappear...

Overall, there is a ton of KPIs to track the biomechanics aspects of running. But when it comes to the mind and motivation, you have to listen to... your body indeed! That inner voice. The little monkey on your shoulder. The mind game...

So, short of having an objective measure on that end, sharing analytics collected and inferred by Garmin and Coros. With Coros tagging this training run as "Excessive" and giving me a punition of 92 hours until full recovery. Feeling like I got a red card on that one... when I thought I was doing something right... 🤪

Ah, these years when there was only one measure on your watch, time! Last century... A reminder of not forgetting to still run with our mind, head, soul and heart! 🤗

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Coros summary:

Garmin Connect charts:

Garmin Connect laps:

Garmin Connect zones:

Coros Apex 2 (analytics at your wrist, some while running, some, post workout):