My iPod has a personality disorder......

I went out for dinner last night and was too tired to blog when I got home. So here is the run down for the last 2 days of running - Thursday 8Km along the Yarra and around The Tan finished in 40:52, that's an avg 5:06 pace. It was supposed to be a tempo run but I ended up doing Fartlek instead. Splits 5:32, 5:06, 5:30 (inc Anderson St), 5:00, 4:54, 5:08, 4:54, 4:44 Friday 13Km along the Yarra Trail finished in 1:07 which is an avg 5:11 pace. Splits 5:22, 5:06, 5:12, 5:16, 5:11, 5:08, 5:19, 5:12, 5:40, 4:59, 5:00, 5:08, 4:45 Both runs were reasonably comfortable, on the P.R.E scale (perceived rate of exertion - see below) I'd say overall both runs were 5, when racing I would tend to 7 to 8. 1 - Rest 2 - Extremely low effort 3 - Low effort 4 - Very comfortable but noticeably working 5 - Comfortable but working 6 - Slightly uncomfortable, breathing regular 7 - Uncomfortable can talk but must stop talking to catch breath 8 - High effort, cannot talk 9 - Approaching extreme, difficult to breathe 10 - Extreme effort, cannot continue. So these last 2 weeks I am feeling particularly strong, a small part of me is doubting that there is something wrong with my Polar footpod and that the feedback I am getting is wrong. But these are the same paths I was running before the half marathon and looking over my training diary these same runs were at an average pace of 5:20 to 5:30. There were a handful of 5:15 pace runs in there but I recall they were more difficult than they are now. The improvement just seems a bit sudden that's all, then again I have been doing the speedwork for 5 weeks now so that must be having an influence as well. Also I have added more runs of greater than10Km in the weekly training. It's OK, I am not doubting myself, the new pace is just taking a bit of getting used to. I entered some old races times into my diary today, my first 8Km last September was done at a 5:44 pace and I remember working as hard as I could, so there you go with hard work comes improvement. Now, I am all turned around on this running with music thing, I love my iPod shuffle! Though a quick flick through the play list appears to reveal it was set up by someone with multiple personality disorder, the following people seem to have had a crack at loading the song list, The Bogan, The Goth, The Punk, The Indie Chick and The Rock Chick, as evidenced by the following selection I was treated to today - Chemical Brothers, The Bloodhound Gang, MGF, Dead Kennedys, Dallas Crane, Marilyn Manson, Guns N Roses, Ministry, Faithless and Survivor. Ok, lame attempt at hiding that last one, in a momentary lapse of sanity and good taste Eye of the Tiger has ended up in the play list. I forgot it was there and when it kicked in this afternoon I nearly pissed myself laughing, not an easy thing to do when you are running, the passing cyclist must have thought I was nuts :-) Speaking of cyclists they are still giving me odd sideways looks, I am starting to think that I am breaking some unwitten code about not running on the Yarra Trail, I mean it is a shared path way, they are making me paranoid.