it's a process

Four weeks down in the build up for the sub 3 marathon attempt in Rocket City. Fitness level is coming back nicely. Pleasantly surprised when I saw 37 bpm on the heart rate readout of the Garmin. (that was resting, seeing how low I could get it) Never was much of a fan of the HR monitor, but it is kinda cool to compare numbers. Used it on the two of the quality workouts this week. The new/refurbished Garmin 305 didn't arrive in time for my steady state workout on Wednesday. I'll continue to wear it for the quality stuff, so I can compare to the previous training cycle.

BQ1 is really running strong. He was on my heels on my progression run and he was going 17 miles. At this rate, he's going to be the one running sub 3 and I'll be chasing him. Still, way early in the training and plenty of time to build some speed. Did have some speed on the one workout where I needed it this week, just not the endurance. Seems like the endurance takes the longest to build.

Biggest surprise this week was lack of hill strength. Shouldn't have really been a surprise, no hill repeats so far this cycle. I'll start them this week. I was able to run up the hills with a little more authority versus several weeks ago. The big difference was trying to go up the hills at a quicker pace. An hour into my progression run and one of the steeper little hills(Dolly Parton) made my heart feel like it wasn't going to explode. Stopped to catch my breath. (named for the same type of hills on the White Rock Marathon course in Dallas) Ended up just running the last hill(Spain) at a moderate pace and then going close to marathon pace to finish the workout.