The Long Run

7.55@10:36  HR 121 bpm

I haven't been running with others very much recently so when Renee texted the group to see who was up for a run, decided to join her.  Met up just after 6:30, still dark but not yet raining.  We headed over to the Starkey Gap Trail and ran south toward Keystone.  First mile was slower than it felt at 12:25.  Rest of the miles were in the 10's.  A couple of miles into the run it began to drizzle, fortunately never came down too hard.  Turned onto Keystone and kept going until Renee's watch said 3.5 miles and then turned back.  

Ran back to where she was parked and then I kept going the rest of the way back to my house.  Despite the slower pace, very happy with the heart rate.  The last time I was close to this low (124) it was at a much slower pace.

After I got back, took a short nap (ok, not that short, maybe an hour).  Need to do more of these runs that start in the dark and then turn light.

5.31@8:38

Run was kind of mixed up.  I was up a bit late working last night and did not get out of bed until 8:45 and then it was around 9:00 when I got out the door.  Was just going to do a couple of miles so I could stay home w baby while Jessica dropped off her older one at school.  Got back to the house as she was about to leave, she decided to take the baby with her so I went back out.  The first part of the run was mainly up and down the street and a small loop in Westlake where I picked up the pace to make it back in time.

I went back out for 3 more miles, running out  of the neighborhood, down Belcher Rd and then into the south entrance of Westlake.  Last two miles were 8:11 and 7:36, then I was running the last 0.3 at about 7:15 pace.

Kind of random paces.

3.55@11:45   HR 128 bpm (whoop)

I've been using a whoop tracking device for a while but was mainly recording the heart rate data from the garmin heart rate (garmin 630 with strap).  The whoop is usually off  by 10 points for the average, and usually shows a huge spike while warming up.

So, today I used whoop and my phone and watched the heart rate.  I started out super slow as the heart rate wanted to shoot up, but once I was warmed up the heart rate stayed steady and I slowly increased the pace, finishing with an average at 128 (highest was 148, with an early spike and a smaller spike later while going up a small grassy embankment).

Still not sure which monitor to trust, but it was an interesting experience.

Run was from my house to the Starkey Gap trail heading north and then back.  Ran through the ditch along Trinity Blvd to avoid running on the road.  Weather was perfect.

8.06@8:42, HR 148 bpm

Tough run today, was hoping for a feel good 2x2 mile workout where I hit better times than the last time and it all felt easier than expected.  That did not happen , but I did do the job (sort of).  Converted the second set into 2 x 1 mile.

Warmup two miles, then first set : 7:31, 7:35  (I'm usually faster on the second mile, this time a struggle to hang on).

Went easy for a mile, and then tackled two more miles, but as mile repeats.

7:20, 6:57

So, ended on a high note.  Looking forward to finishing that last mile.  It started out feeling like I'd be around 7:20 like the one before it but in the last quarter of a mile I seemed to slowly gain some speed.

Finished up with one easy mile.

Course was looping inside Westlake Village where the little ups and downs usually make me go faster, picking up more speed on the downhills than I lost on the uphills.

6.06@11:37,  HR 127 bpm

Another purposely slow run today, almost all of it under 130 bpm (a few spikes here and there).  Hopefully slowly getting faster at this heart rate.  Makes a good recovery day.  Ran from my house southbound down the Starkey Gap trail and then back.  Saw Stacy from the Striders going the other way as I was coming back, stopped and said hi and then continued on.  Was a really nice morning for running.

I spent a few minutes helping out Andy a little bit with a work problem after the run.

4.49@11:36, HR 121 bpm

Taking it easy today due to the race tomorrow and also not feeling very well at all.  Need a recovery day.  Tried again to start out with Whoop heart rate low, but today it was extra misbehaving no matter how slow I ran or walked.  Tried stopping and restarting.  Eventually gave up and just looked at the garmin HR from the paired strap.

The attempt at going slow enough gave me 13:13 split for the first mile.  Mile 4 was fastest at 10:49 and 126 bpm average.

I like the way that the Whoop app puts together the data but it's hard to trust it.  Towards the end of this past January it consistently showed me at very high strain even on easy days and soon after that I seemed to lose fitness with vo2 max dropping and runs feeling harder, so the repeated high strain days were a warning possibly.

Can only do so much with technology.  Will keep trying.