13.75 miles - 11/8

Today I was finally able to get a long run in. I decided to do it today when the weather was a little more overcast and wet, because tomorrow is supposed to be drier, and more conducive to a bicycle ride.

This was the first long run since the half marathon in October. After taking the following week off completely, and not running more then a few times since then, it is not surprising that some conditioning was lost. However, I figure that with surgery coming up, I'm going to lose conditioning over the winter anyway - so I'm not fretting about it too much. However, I'd like to do what I can do to at least maintain up until the surgery actually occurs. It seems to me that if I concentrate primarily on the long run conditioning, as opposed to the speed work - that I'll be better off in the long run. Speed work conditioning, in my opinion, has a higher rate of loss when inactive.

Today I also started to play around more with the heart rate limit functions in my heart rate monitor. Up until this point, I've basically used it as a feedback tool. However, it is possible to program in heartrate limits, and it'll beep when you go outside of those limits. I thought it might be a good way to keep myself within the appropriate target range.

Unfortunately, I found that it was more trouble then it was worth. I had a range from 145 to 155 bpm set, and perhaps it would have been more effective on a completely flat course. Even though my route didn't have much for hills - there was enough so that it was beeping more often than not. I eventually turned off the audible beep because it was more of a distraction then a helpful tool. Perhaps at some point in the future I'll look at it again - but for right now, it just wasn't working for me.

Total Time: 2:30:32
Total Distance: 13.75 Miles
Avg HR: 158

This was, by far, the longest run I've gone on time-wise. They say not to increase more than 10% per week - and I think the primary reason for this is to allow your body time to build up to withstand the pounding that running puts on it. However, it seems to me that the 10% rule pertains to distance, not time - and it occured to me that there seems to be a glaring hole in the logic there.

The reason is this - if you slow down, your feet end up striking the ground more times for a given distance. So even though the overall distance may be the same for a slow run vs a fast run, you may put more stress on your body with the slower run simply because you impact the ground that much more often. So from this perspective, it would seem that the 10% increase would pertain to time, not distance.

Of course, if you run at the same pace during every run - then it all comes out in the wash.