30-Day Fitness Rebound Week One Update

It has been a really good week. I was going to wait until tomorrow to report but my body was getting a little tired and I am not sure I will run tomorrow, at least no more than a mile. So far I have run at least one mile 8 days in a row for a total of 32 miles including a 10-mile long run. I am planning on running at least a mile a day through the month of August. In addition I have cycled twice for a total of 47 miles doing a 1-mile run at the end of each ride in 80+-degree temperature. 

So last Friday I set some benchmarks to compare my progress, here is a review: (See post)

I ran 6 miles at a 10:43 Avg. pace per mile. My first mile was at a pace of 10:11 and my last mile was at a pace of 11:13. That is about a minute difference. Based on experience I know that these two extremes will get much closer together as I regain my fitness over the next 30 days. I also expect my overall pace to get faster. So I am going to look at 3 metrics for evaluation as to how much fitness I can regain in 30 days.

1. Average Heart Rate: 139.  My goal will be to be within 2 beats of this number, on either side, for my test on August 31.
2. Average pace per mile:  10:43 per mile.
3. First and last mile pace: 10:11 for first mile and 11:13 for the last mile.

Here are my progress stats end of week one:

       1.  Average Heart Rate: 142 Just a hair over my goal. 
       2.  Average Pace Per Mile: 10:06. 
       3.  First and Last Mile Pace: 9:39 for first mile and 10:41 for the last mile.

My average pace per mile improved by 37 seconds, but the difference between first mile time and last mile time stayed exactly the same at 62 seconds.

Overall I am very happy with my progress and could not really wish for a much better result in just one week. I would like to have seen the difference between my first and last mile be less than the week before but overall I really can’t complain at all. To improve by 37 seconds in one week is a very significant improvement.

So let’s review my goals for August 31. I stated last week that I would like to be back to an average pace of a 9:30 pace per mile under the same conditions or as close as possible to the same conditions. At this point I am already halfway there. Does that mean I can reach my goal in just 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks? Probably not, as I expect my progress next week to be somewhat diminished over this week. I would really be greatly surprised to reach my goal by the end of next week.

Have you ever chronicled a fitness rebound? What kind of gains in fitness did you expect and how did your result measure up against your goals and expectations?

Quite frankly, I would never have guessed that I would be able to knock off 37 seconds in just one week. Part of this is probably do to running at least one mile each day and also doing some cycling on a couple of my easy days. I did not cycle at a particularly hard effort, in fact both rides were fairly easy efforts overall. I ran only one stressful workout and that was the 8 hill-repeats I ran Tuesday night and even that was conservative because I felt my heel tighten up so I did not run the full twelve repeats I had planned.

Let me know about your comeback experiences!

Happy Trails,

Russ