Pacer day today at Parkrun

[Bazza1234]

I decided today to take it easy at parkrun and would follow the 35 minute pacer. After my difficult run on Thursday, I found today to be quite easy Strange thing was that while pacing alongside the pacer, I was able to hold a reasonable conversation with him as we went along -- not exactly a flowing conversation, a bit stilited but good enough to be able to discuss a few things --BUT my HRM showed that my average HR for the 5K was 90% of max ( max showing as 163) . I have been doing some runs at low HR's -75-80% of max and would not have expected to be able to hold any conversation at all at 90% -- but I did!! I was also a bit surprised that my av HR went that high for that relatively leisurely 35 minute pace - as my PB is just a tad over 30 mins.

[no-excuse Graduate]

I think sometimes we manage a conversation because it takes our minds off of the running. As for the higher average HR, I don't have a clue why that would be- maybe it depends what the topic of conversation is! x

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to no-excuse]

I am wondering if my level of cardio fitness ( as opposed to pace ) is better than I thought??