I was ready to start heart rate training this week. I was mentally prepared for a long, serious slog by myself for 16k.
I got up super early...3am to be exact. Not specifically for the run, but because I had insomnia. When 8am rolled around, I strapped on my trusty heart rate monitor and headed out the door.
I warned the group that I was going to try and stay in my "Zone 2" for the long run. I told them so that they wouldn't feel obligated to turn back and look for me at the 1 minute walk break.
We started off together. Eager to get going, I started at the front of the pack, only to find that - with my excitement - I was already in Zone 2! I slowed down. Then slowed down some more.
Then slowed down even more.
With sinking pride, I watched as the entire pack of runners shifted ahead of me. First by a couple of feet, then a couple more. Within 1km, they were out of sight around a corner. Ugh! What a kick to my pride. I wanted to be there with them, chatting away.
I steeled myself for what was to come...but then who came around the corner behind me but Dave! Good old Dave, who was also heart rate training. And wouldn't you know it? Our goals kept us around the same pace! Certainly I was not expecting that.
While Dave was going with a time goal (2 hours) I had a distance goal (16km). Before long we decided to journey together. I suggested we just head back for 2 hours, and then I could make up whatever distance I needed.
Around 5km we came across our running group again. Say WHAT? It wasn't long before we compared distances and realized that I had gotten the two of us turned around...they were at their 7k mark, while we were only at 5k. But no worries! Easy enough to tack on at the end.
One interesting thing with heart rate training: you don't really do a 10:1 run:walk ratio. It just doesn't make sense. It's more about keeping your heart rate in the right zone, so we walked parts of the hills (as needed), and did short power-walking breaks when that heart rate crept into Zone 3...never too long. Maybe only 10-30 seconds long. Sadly, the power-walking was just as fast as our run, but still effective at slowing down the heart rate. Yep, we could have walked the course in the same time! Depressing, but apparently that's normal at the beginning.
In the end, Dave decided to do the distance with me. We even ran a bit over, which was fine.
Total distance: 17.5km
Total time: 2.33.30
Average pace: 8.45min/km
Was it easy? Yes. Did I feel incredibly lucky to have a running buddy for the whole thing? Yes! Am I prepared to do this for the next 3 months, even on the days I don't have a running buddy? Absolutely! We'll see how it goes...if I don't get better at this my 32k LSD are going to feel tortuously long!
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