Today's plan: run on my 4 mile neighborhood loop - the first mile at a slow pace (HR <>
I do not do many tempo runs. I'm normally either slogging away at a nice, slow pace or hitting the track to throw in faster intervals. So this was definitely a nice, welcome addition to my training. Unfortunately, on the training plan I only do Tempo Runs during the first three weeks - and I missed last week's - so again, I won't be doing these often during the next few months.
My first mile was awesome! I kept my HR low (avg 143) and finished the first mile in 10:21. I then pushed the pace up a bit and got my HR to 160 pretty quickly. It was really great to be "running". About 1/3 mile into my tempo pace, there is a really steep hill, so I had to slow my pace quite a bit in order to keep my HR in the 165 range. After that, I think the high temperatures/humidity along with the hill got to me, and my pace started to slow while trying to keep my HR in the 165 range. I ended up covering 2.5 miles in the 25 minutes of "tempo run" which is a 10:00/mile pace. I slogged out the last .85 miles of the loop in 11:13 - in a desperate attempt to bring my HR back down to 150. I couldn't do it - my avg HR during that last part of the run was 163.
My finishing time was 46:37 for the 4.4 mile loop - a 10:32/mile pace. Looking in my training log, I found that in April I was running this loop as an "easy run" in under 44 minutes with an average heart rate in the low 150s. Of course, the temperatures were in the 40s - not high 70s!
Tomorrow will be a rest day - and a scheduled massage!!! I hope the massage therapist can work out the knot and other issues in the tendons behind my right knee. I want to run without discomfort again!
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