AM/Lunch: 17 miles, averaged 7:30. HR 149.
10-Mile Tempo, Averaged 6:50
I wanted to get in a halfway decent long run of at least 2 hours with some quality aerobic miles (about 8-10 miles around marathon effort to a bit steadier if feeling good). I thought my legs would be heavy after four hours on the bike yesterday, but they were pretty decent.
Honest 3-mile warmup at sub-8 pace straight into the workout. I figured I would start around 7:20-7:25 and cut down, but I was already in the low 7s headed uphill and progressed nicely from there, staying in control and never really struggling or pressing though not really able to cut down much beyong the low-6:40s, which was fine as I haven't been able to run that fast in a few years. My HR never got that high and I will sometimes press solidly into the 160s and even low 170s if I am feeling good the last 2-3 miles.
7:08, 6:55, 6:52, 6:53, 6:50, 6:48, 6:47, 6:46, 6:48, 6:43
HR was just under 160 average, which seem about 5-8 beats low, but who knows. HR dropped down a beat or two in some miles, when it should have climbed slightly due to cardiac drift if nothing else. Effort was right in any case. Cooled down to 17 at a honest easy pace, while allowing the HR to drop back down.
It's taken me two years of fairly consistent training/running, but I think I am on my way to my old self. I still have a lot of work to do, but this is really the first longer aerobic workout where I have run significantly faster than my planned pace. A few weeks ago 6:40ish pace for 8 miles in a race felt pretty hard. Today it felt comfortable, and if I were doing 6-8 miles of work, I would have cut down into the 6:30s or even high 6:20s possibly. One for the positive column for sure.
The boys had their 4th birthday. We didn't have a party other than the immediate family. They have had colds so the timing wasn't great, but they had a good day I think.
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