This year I have done very few actual races - just the Worcester half marathon and the Patriot Half Iron. Most of the time when a potential race came up, the timing wasn't good for me to either do the distance required, or push the intensity required. But this time ended up being different - after having done some speed work the past few weeks, and this race being a 9/11 memorial 5k that a couple other friends were doing, I decided to join in.
In thinking about my approach to this race, I decided that I'd shoot for an average HR of about 165 for the entire thing. My thinking was that I had done a few sessions of tempo runs @ 160 for 20-25 minutes, and I had just done eight miles at 155-160. Based on my recent paces, I figured that would have me doing a 7:30 min/mile pace or less, and very possibly closer to 7:15.
We got to the location a bit early and decided to walk along part of the course. It was at this point that I realized my plan probably wasn't going to work out all too well. The course was somewhat hilly - and having done no hill work, I knew my HR would be all over the place. So only way to try and keep it regulated would be to adjust speed based on terrain. I also did something I rarely do - warmed up for a bit before the run. Normally the distances of the races I'm running is long enough that I figure I can warm up during the run, and it won't cost me much time overall. However, with only 5k of distance, by the time I got warmed up, I'd be a mile in and it'd be hard to make up the time lost in the remaining two miles.
The first mile was pretty quick, but I could tell it was mostly flat with a slight downhill. To the eye, it looks pretty flat, but after a while I've been able to tell when there is a slight downhill because my HR and pace don't match up quite where they should. The second mile was pretty much all trail running, and consisted of rolling hills, which made keeping a constant HR nearly impossible. Then the third mile had the big uphill - afterall, in a race where the stop and start are right next to one another, every downhill you enjoy early on is met with an uphill later on.
It was about halfway through the 2nd mile that I decided to forego the idea of maintaining 165 throughout - my HR was bouncing around between the low 160's and the mid 170's during that second mile. So the average might have been close to 165, but that wasn't what I was looking for. Ultimately I ended up deciding that even with my HR reaching into the 170's - I'd be able to maintain for the full 3.1 miles, so even though I was higher than planned, I wasn't concerned.
So even though the best laid plans went to waste, there was something positive to take away from this - I am able to maintain about 170 for 20 minutes, so I have a much better idea of my tempo run intensity level that I can attain.
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