5 Miles - 9/11

Earlier in the day, I was originally thinking that I'd do todays run as a tempo run - aiming for a HR of about 155 or so. The 5 mile distance is a solid run, and the HR of 155 is solidly in the moderate aerobic category for me. However when I thought about the purpose of yesterday's run, to extend my upper limit with speed work, and I thought about the purpose of keeping the HR down (based on the grey-zone info I posted about before), I decided that having an easy day right after a hard speed workout day would probably be best. Tomorrow's run, with a rest day afterwards, can be a tempo run.

As it turned out, it was probably a good thing. I was still slightly stiff from yesterday, and that stiffness didn't go away until about mile 2. But I definately did notice something - I was cruising along pretty good for having an avg HR of around 150, compared to my previous paces @ 150.

Total Distance: 5.25 miles
Total Time: 50:37
Avg HR: 148
Average Pace: 9:38

I was concerned that the avg HR would be in the 153 range, because any time there was a slight uphill, I found it climbing to 155 or higher. However, as soon the ground flattened out, the HR came right back down. So I noticed that my recovery time seemed to have gone down quite a bit.

Looking at the numbers, it doesn't look earth shattering - a 9:30 pace at a target HR of 150 or so. But when you compare to the last couple times I ran that loop, it sticks out. The last time I ran it, I had a similar pace (9:28), but the HR was significantly higher - 157. The time before that, I had a faster pace (9:02), but the HR was 160. That run was also the one where I alternated running for 4 minutes and walking for 40 seconds.

So all in all, while the pace may have remained largely the same, the effort my body was expending to maintain that pace had dropped pretty dramatically. Ten to twelve beats per minute doesn't seem like a lot when you are talking about 150 of them, but keep in mind that the difference between very light cardio and intense anaerobic training is only about 35 bpm. So 10-12 bpm is a fairly significant chunk.