When I first ventured into the strange world of “running”, I hated the thought of running with other people (“I’m too slow!”). Then I started running with other people, and I hated the thought of running on my own* (“It’s too boring!”). Heart rate training, by consequence, has made me into a selfish runner. (“I’d LOVE to run with you…but only if you go at MY pace.”). I love, love, love it when I find people willing to go at my pace, but I appreciate that in a small group that is an unreasonable expectation. I’m sort of wondering…if this is a new chapter of a runner’s life, what would it be called? And where in the runner’s book would it be? Beginning, middle, or end?
Tuesday night was one of those nights where it happened! I had low expectations due to my disastrous Sunday LSD. But apparently I was recovered enough that – despite the heat – I was able to keep up with some other running pals. Okay, I was able to keep up right up until the last 500m when they surged ahead and I had to slow down due to climbing heart rate. I didn’t even reach the top end of my training zone, which was nice and comfortable. What do I mean by that? Well, because I’m heart-rate training, I’ve been ‘testing’ myself to see if I can notice improvements. To test myself, every run I aim to keep my heart-rate at the highest end of the zone possible without going over (e.g.: when I’m in Zone 4 training, I keep my heart-rate at 4.8-4.9). While some may argue that this may not be the ideal way to heart-rate train, my response is hush! It’s the only way I can measure improvements to keep me motivated.
Total time: 35.33min
Total distance:6.02km
Average Pace: 5.54min/km
Average HR: 166 (86% of max)
*Races excepted, of course! But the energy from a race is vastly different from that of a training run.
PS - I can name the Chapter of my Wednesday night run! "Seven Hills...Where Laura Kicks Some Ass!"
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