I’ve been working hard to get back to fitness running to heart rate, gradually extending my long runs, speed intervals, the usual stuff that we do when for whatever reason we have to take a long break from running.
For the last 4 or 5 weeks my long runs have started to hit 10K and beyond. (So I feel I can post on here!) Most of these runs have been in low heart rate zones.
Today I had intended a 2 hour run. But I changed my mind and decided to run a 10K the way I used to! Yes, I’d still keep a wary eye on my heart rate but I’d switch the 1Km autolap back on and be aware of my pace a bit more. Just to see!
Vest and shorts today I thought! It was the right choice. I had a light breakfast and took a Tailwind drink with me, as well as water. I never used to do this in the past for a 10K, but have got into the habit of doing it now for my longer runs, since SueAppleRun kindly sent me some!
A 10 minute warm up with a few strides and I’m ready to go! I did find it a little tricky to set the right pace. 10K is a long way if you start too fast, but I wasn’t far out. As I’m running, my mind decides to tell me that if I get my skates on I might try and improve my 5K time as well! This, I think, turned out to be a bit of a mistake. I started to push myself really before I should have. The 6th km I had to slow down.
I ran on and tried to listen to my music! All went well until the last couple of kilometres when I did start to struggle a little. I eased off and it felt like my last km was at a snail’s pace - funny how that works out though - it wasn’t as slow as it felt!
At the end I was really tired but the pace was comparable to how I was running when I was at peak fitness. Not quite there yet - but pretty close! My heart rate climbed up a little with each km and I ended up with an average of 150.
Very happy with the run and I did manage to improve my 5K time to just over 40 minutes. (It’s never been my favourite distance!)
😊🏃♀️👍☀️☕️🍰