By the time I got out of the door this morning it already felt very warm. I'd woken at 6, enjoyed a cool breeze blowing through the bedroom window and drifted back to sleep. Again.
Garmin tells me I set off at 8.21 and the temperature was 21C. The sun was shining and I was tempted to just say 'too hot' and turn back. Nope, if I've gone to the effort of putting on my running gear I might as well carry on.
Coach Bennett likes to say that every run has a purpose. I decided that today's purpose was to actively embrace slow running and keeping my heartrate down. When all the instincts are saying 'faster, faster' it takes some mental discipline not to slip in a quick interval.
While I ran I pondered on the expression 'best pace'. Slow was definitely my best pace today but the rest of the running world seems to think that best=fastest. 'Best' depends on you, on the conditions, on so many other things than speed.
When I checked my stats at home I hadn't wandered into Zone 5, the maximum zone, at all. If I was trying to push myself this run would be a total failure but, by the parameters I'd chosen, it was a total success
Keep cool, keep safe and keep on enjoying those runs!
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Great run! Staying out of zone 5 in a hot run is surely a sign of all that consistency paying off. Success indeed!
I got fooled by rain and chilly weather this morning. I thought I’d be ok running this evening but suddenly it’s hot and sunny again… I wish I’d followed your example and gone early!! Nice one! Love the roses too ❤️
Oh yes 😁 a total success, keeping it steady in this heat is a must, and you didn't wander into zone ,5? Gosh, I get upset if I creep into zone 3 on a slow run
With every run I do, I'll do a warm up walk of about 5 minutes, then as soon as I start to run my HR will jump to zone 3 or 4 within the first five minutes. If I slow down and take a few deep breaths it will drop quite rapidly, but I've no idea how to stay in Zone 2 unless I walk.
I wonder if I should be worried. I'm hypothyroid (medicated and well managed) so if anything should have a low heartrate!
I don't know the answer, I'm also hypothyroid and my heartrate was mostly in zone 4 until I started zone 1 running, I set my watch to heartrate not pace and to start with had to walk every few yards to bring it down , I'm super slow but can keep running now and keep my heartrate in zone 1, after around half an hour it creeps up to zone 2 or if there's any type of incline, then I walk til it comes down again. I hate seeing the very slow pace but so like that I don't get puffed out and can run for longer .Having said that watches are notorious for picking up on cadence rather than heartrate, I wear a chest strap when I remember to put it on.
And of course, once a week I do speed intervals, get hot and sweaty, quickly get puffed out and my heartrate shoots up but I love them.
I'm sure your heartrate is fine, most people will say go by feel rather than numbers 😁
This is really reassuring SueAppleRun . HR is the thing I check the most these days when I'm out for a run. It's weird, if I'm say running for a bus and the HR goes up to over 100 I feel stressed, but when I'm out on a run I feel absolutely fine at 140. In the high 140s it starts to feel like hard work.
If it goes above 150 I get a sort of uncomfortable feeling in my chest and I've definitely felt my body is giving me a nudge to take it easier.
The higher rates happen if I run quite fast (for me), usually having the time of my life, limbs all working in perfect coordination and head telling me that I am a gazelle springing across the pastures. The heart knows the truth 😂
I just checked my longest ever run, the 10k I did in October 2022. My average HR was 160 bpm and maximum 178. (Cadence was 156, max 171 spm). I spent the entire run happily chatting to another runner so it must have been a conversational pace ie definitely not flat out!! I have no recollection of any heart related discomfort at all! (unless the bpm's and the spm's were, as you suggested, getting mixed up).
Oh well, I was 2 years younger then, must be getting old 😂😂😂
Interested in your ponderings on best pace! It is so hard not to feel pressured to go faster because of what others might think. I try to tell myself that I should be proud I am making the effort, but I'm my own worst enemy - once I've achieved something (30 minutes, 5 K, 6K etc) I feel like a failure if I do less or do it more slowly.
I don't have anything that tells me my heart rate or zones, but I reckon a lot of the time I am pushing too much (even though I am still slow). Thank you for reminding me that actually, the best pace is the one that gets me round without feeling like I'm going to expire!
Sorry for the delay replying, it's been a very busy couple of days.
You're right, there's a really persistent view pushed that speed is the be all and end all and that slow is somehow something lesser.
I used to always drive too fast until I ended up on a speed awareness course. It changed my attitude to speed in the car. Now I challenge myself to keep to the speed limit instead of seeing how quickly I can get from A to B. It's actually a lot more demanding than just going quick.
Applying the same principle to running I finding that sticking to a slow pace is a really satisfying challenge.
Of course it's sometimes fun to run flat out, but I thing we can agree that the best pace is the one you feel you want to do
You're right. I sometimes fall into the trap of wanting to go faster/be faster, but I'm getting better at turning off that little voice and I've come to relish my slow pace runs.
This is actually a picture from the summer of 2020, still have the rose bushes but they are recovering from being neglected while I was away for 5 weeks. They were here and mature when we moved here 15 years ago, and they have the most incredible scent
Love that Purpose run... You have my roses there too! Purpose ... to smell the roses
What a great run... Getting out earlier is certainly the way forward, certainly for me and you.. and many of us. I find the whole speed thing , odd.
it is so individual and it depends on what we want from our running and why... I think the more I rum the more, especially now, after pulling back a bit, the pace is just coming almost unthinkingly...easing off and ramping up as necessary.
You had a great run and you got it right... brilliant
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The slow one!
Playing in the zones on a slow 5k 😊
