Monday 19 miles & answering a comment..

am) Treadmill-(snowing outside). 5 mile warm-up with the last 3 miles at 5:45-5:55 pace.
Then:
1 mi 5:23/ 400 in 1:28
1 mi 5:21/ 400 in 1:28
1 mi 5:21/ 400 in 1:28
1 mi 5:23/ 400 in 1:28
1200 in 4:01/ 400 in 1:45- 1:55 (?)
1200 in 4:01/ 400 in 1:45-1:55 (?)
1 mi in 5:33..
8 miles in 44:40. Average pace 5:35. Average HR 168. Max HR 174.
1 mile cool-down.
Phenomenal run for me. The structure for this was aimed at running 2-8 heart beats below my LT (or 103% of goal pace)- just enough to start to accumulate a little lactate.. I think I should have run the first couple a little faster as my HR never broke 169 until the third mile. The recoveries are not supposed to fully recover me, only allow slight buffering of lactate. This happened to be 5:52 pace, my HR was dropping significantly at this pace. As the workout progressed my HR was not dropping enough so I took more rest. My HR on the last mile never went above 170 showing strong lactate buffering capability (for me).
My 5k split was 16:59..

pm) 5 miles easy jogging for recovery. It is f-ing COLD out right now. The wind chill has to be in the negative teens. Tomorrow morning is going to sting.

I received a comment below- from Charles Manson!! It could be him or OJ Simpson.
The whole anonymous posting thing gets me every time. Sort of a throw back (or UP) to the bull (and chicken) shit forum posters on letsrun.com. The question, asking for me to take a bit of time and explain the specifics of what I have been writing about for months, is coming from someone who will not even tell me their name? Affable or not- I'll answer it because it's a good question.

Anonymous asks: I'm not sure if I missed it or not somewhere in your entries, but how do you plan on pacing yourself at Austin? Will you go by feel, % of MHR, or my some other means? If you are going on a % of MHR, what percentage of your MHR is going to be your goal marathon pace? Maybe this is a stupid question, but I don't claim to be a HR guru...

First off, basing your fitness (which is always changing) on Max HR (which is not changing (but every year you age)) is not effective- it's lazy. I think most people that don't require a quick and easy "shortcut" should take the time and energy to figure out their LT.. or buck up and buy Jack Daniel's Running Formula and start extrapolating the HR numbers. Or go to a lab and use science to determine this pace. I have no reason at all to ever go to max HR unless I am being chased by something above me on the food chain.
So, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way.. to answer the question.. I will be using everything I can to help me judge my effort. I will use HR for the first 13-15 miles in order to keep myself from going too hard. With the adrenaline of the race start I am notorious for starting too fast. I also have a fairly good idea as to what pace per mile I am going to be capable of running, but this can be a pitfall. The self fulfilling prophecy concept is true and I don't want to limit my performance by thinking that I can't do something. My goal pace is somewhere close to 4%-5% slower than my LT pace per mile/ or ~10-12 beats below LT for the first 13 miles.. then it should climb gradually. So even though I have a set pace in mind I will watch my HR and I will also use perceived exertion. But- I have very little experience with this race distance (only 3 marathons) so my perception of what is too hard may be off. I know at Phoenix I ran way too easy (2:30).. and Denver was just a crappy race, I didn't learn much there except that I can jog with hypothermia to a 2:30 at altitude in 34 degree rain!
So, HR/ pace/ PE for the first 13-15 miles.. Then PE and pace for the next 5-7 miles.. Then just mental strength for the last 6.2 miles.. if my nutrition and pacing were spot on then the last 10k is all going to be in my head.
All in all this an experiment for me and this is just my opinion.. I don't claim to be a HR guru either.