First long run of the new schedule. Big crowd, as it was the first official tune-up for Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon taking place on Septmber 27. The marathon clinic is large anyway, and I only see a few familar faces in the sea of runners.
I decided to stick to my heart rate training, and keep my pace below 140 bpm. With the weather so warm, it was difficult to do it consistently. I hovered between 138 and 142 for most of the first half of the 13k, but busted the range most of the second half. Keeping down in this range is 7+ minutes per kilometer pace, which was still a struggle after two weeks off.
The watch was beeping constantly because I was over the range I had set, so I'm glad I was running alone. Don't want to bother anyone with the unrelenting beep-beep-beep that it sounds. It used to drive me nuts, but now I hardly even noticed because it's been burned into my memory so deeply! :-)
Time 1:33:25
Distance 12.96k (8.1 mi)
Pace 7:12/km (11:31/mi)
HR zone 120-140 bpm
HR Max 156, Avg 142
In zone 37.8% of the run | 