I’ve been a bit lazy with my long runs lately! So this morning I wanted to do a little better. I’d do a 90 minute run - then assess how I felt and run on a little if all was well. I’d do the 90 minutes as a low HR run (120 - 133) then kick it up a gear if I felt up to carrying on. It’s more the time it takes with me! I know I can do long runs at low effort.
I prepared some Tailwind to take with me. I have 2 small bottles that fit in my running vest. It was going to be warm, but not too hot (13/14 degrees). The humidity was going to be high at 88% but I know I’m used to that and it doesn’t bother me much. So after a good deal of faffing about after a light breakfast, stretches done, I leave the house for my warm up.
It seems cool enough as I do my 10 minute warm up (which I record separately). I ran it all this morning, alternating between light jogging and burst of faster running. All is good and I’m ready to start. I had already calculated that keeping to that low heart rate and with the weather conditions, my pace was going to be around 10mins/km. So in 90 minutes I will do about 9kms. That’s fine - when you’re running to a low heartrate all thoughts of a decent pace have to go out of the window! 😊. I’d run on after that if I felt like it. All was left was to enjoy the run.
And I really did this morning. I selected a music playlist which Amazon did for me, which was based on my favourite ‘plays’. A mixture of stuff and I loved it! Queen, Santana, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits! Perfect. It’s now second nature for me to monitor my heart rate while running and my watch beeps to tell me if I go over the range I set in my workout. It doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the run. There are inclines on this run so I did have to slow down a number of times, but I didn’t avoid the inclines today (sometimes I do!)
I set off later than usual so there were a lot of people about. Some of the dog walkers I saw more than once! My route involves road running and a concrete path through a park and round a large pond. Many of the dogs are off lead but all were well behaved. On past occasions some have run with me for a while, but not today.
It’s all very steady and I’m not exerting myself at all. I get to 9 kms as predicted in 90 minutes. Should I go on? I’m feeling good, I’ve been drinking my Taikwind and had a few jelly babies. I decide to go on, but not to bother so much about heart rate. Give myself a bit of freedom! I don’t want to pick up the pace too much. The last long run I did was just over 90 minutes a week ago so it’s a bit of an increase this morning and I don’t want to risk injury. My 10th km was up a slight incline and it was harder work than I expected! 2 kms to go and I’m starting to feel tired. I still pick up the pace a little though - and my 12th km was the fastest of the run at 8:46. I allow myself to slow down until the 2 hours is up. Run done and I’m at Tesco! I do my stretches immediately as I want to go in and grab a coffee and cake! There was a queue though. I’m not sure how nice it would be for people to stand next to me in a queue when I’ve just run over 12 km so I chicken out and head for home 🤣
Back home I see that my average HR for the whole run was 135. Very pleased with that 😊
10 miler....