6 Miles - 3/8

With another warm weather day, I decided to go on my 6 mile loop today.

Many of my runs recently have been at higher heartrates, so this time I really wanted to try and keep the HR down to something closer to 150. Part of this was just because it is good to vary exercise intensity - and the other reason is just that going slower means I'm able to be outside in nice weather longer, making the whole thing a little more enjoyable.

I also ran on my older shoes from last fall, instead of the newer shoes with more padding. Unexpectedly, the older shoes felt much more pliable and cushion-y then they had the last few times I ran on them. When I was running with them over the colder days of winter, I figured that since my feet were still at normal temperature, that the shoes should be fine. However, I had noticed that they tended to 'slap' onto the surface.

After today, and running on the older shoes, it dawned on me that while the inside of the shoes may have been at temperature during the winter, the outside was probably much colder and therefore stiffer.

Long story short - the older shoes that seemed like they were wearing out just needed to be warmed up to feel normal again.

Total Distance: 6 miles
Total Time: 1:01:53
Avg HR: 157

I did really well at keeping the HR down for the first 3.5-4 miles, but this loop has some inclines towards the end, and I frequently saw the HR get to be 165-170 during that time. As much self control as I was able to muster to keep from going faster in the beginning, I just couldn't slow down enough to keep my HR in the 150-155 range during those inclined sections.