Getting Faster and Fitter

Did 14 miles on Sunday at about 8:20 min/mile pace.  This was a recent bump in pace for me.  All my long runs to date including the ones leading up the spring marathons were at about 9 min/miles.  I was way over my target long run heart rate for this run so I'll probably have to return to the slower long runs the next couple of weeks until I can build some mileage and get the HR back down. 

In past training cycles, all I've done is run.  No cross training, no weights, no anything else.  Though I've tried the 100 pushup challenge and the occasional core workout, I never really stuck with anything to the point of seeing change.  I never really saw the need for it since I'd been able to accomplish most of my goals without it.  I feel though that I've hit a bit of a wall in terms of training effect.  Most people can get faster by building some endurance or losing weight.  I think I've already hit that ceiling in terms of weight loss and VO2Max with very little in the way of future room for improvement. I think this training cycle, I will try and do a little more total body fitness. Hopefully this will assist in getting me to a point where I can gun for some PRs without having to add a ton of extra mileage.  Who knows, maybe a 3:10 marathon attempt for the fall is in the cards.

I did 8 miles outside today with some strides and had the HR spike a couple of times which I suppose is good timing since I'm going for my cardiac stress test tomorrow.  I haven't had any issues with HR as of late, but I think that's because I've been running at a lower intensity level. I'm just hoping that I can reproduce the symptom tomorrow. I'd hate to go through the whole exercise of getting tested without being able to reproduce the effect.