Saturday Morning Long Runs Again!

This morning I went out for a 9 mile run. It's back to training mode - and just like last year, I'll be doing my long runs on Saturday mornings - before going to synagogue.

This means a few things - since I need to wake up early, I can't stay up as late on Friday night. The past few months we have used Friday nights as our Netflix night after the kids are asleep, but I knew I'd be dragging all day today if I went to bed at midnight last night. I also can't drink as much wine during our Shabbat dinner. Last night, we still had about half a bottle left over when we (OK...I) usually come close to finishing the bottle.

I decided to do my usual 9-mile loop through Old Towne Gaithersburg. Nothing new here. My HR started to raise during the hills in mile 3, and never really came down much after that.

I decided to look at my stats on this between this year and last year:

• I first ran this route last year on January 26 - week 4 of my training. I kept my HR down to an average of 153, max of 170. My pace was 11:59/mile. The temperature was 26 degrees.
• This is now week 2 of my current training. My pace on today's run was over a minute per mile faster - 10:51/mile - and the temperature was 40 degrees higher at 67 degrees. My average HR on today's run was 163 with a max of 180.
• I also looked at my long run on week 2 of last year's training - a 7 miler. I ran an 11:09 pace with an average HR of 159 at 40 degree temperatures.

So yes, my average HR was higher than where I was training last year. However, the week 2 comparison - on HR, pace and air temperature - gives me a little hope.

One more tidbit on HR. It's going to be going up next week. I have an appointment to donate blood on Monday, so my runs next week will be slower. I'll rearrange the schedule next week to do my 5 miler on Monday, and the two 3 milers on Wednesday and Thursday. On the weekend I have a shorter run scheduled (my first "kick-back" week) and instead of the 6 miler, I'll be running an 8K with Sherry! This will be the first race that we run together! I promised to run with her and not to bolt ahead - it should be fun!