Sock tans

I planned to just go out for 5 miles, but then I got going and decided to take cross hollows. Then it turned into a sort of effort run heading down to the stoplight. It was downhill so that definitely helped, but I was giving a good effort by the end. The first mile felt easy going up Main (7:40), then the next mile I picked it up staying relaxed (downhill started about .5 in). 7:06, 6:45, 6:41 for the next 3 miles. That last mile I pushed because it was closer to flat, still slight downhill though. Then I went slow for the next 4 miles just to finish the loop. 

My heart rate monitor came today! So I tried it out on my run. I’m unfamiliar with the heart rate zones and don’t know which ones correspond to which workouts, or which one should be “recovery,” but I’ll look into it. I think zone 5 would be speed workouts? Then zone 4 tempos? And my guess is zone 3 is 50% or recovery? Or maybe 2 is recovery/long runs? I really don’t know haha.

Anyways, I kept my watch screen on HR so I wouldn’t worry about pace. It was nice. I did Dikes and ended up averaging 7:40. My average HR for the run was 155 (zone 3.7) and max HR was 168 (zone 4.3).  Cadence was 170 spm average. 

My watch says my max HR is 202 and my resting HR is 56. That’s pretty accurate for my resting HR. Counted manually it’s usually right around there, when I’m in better shape it can get lower. That probably means the others are pretty accurate too. Before my run I checked to make sure the personal info was correct, to my surprise the weight was off. I must not have changed it back since gaining my mission weight. To my delight I lowered it 15 lbs :)

Anyways, felt good today but the effort wasn’t exactly easy recovery run effort. Felt like a faster 50% even though my pace says otherwise. I’ve heard HR is a more accurate measurement of effort, but I don’t really know. 

I took the side road today. I thought I’d try out how I felt staying in zone 3 and allowing myself to slow down. My average HR was 148 bpm (zone 3.6) and my max HR was 164 bpm (zone 4.1). It felt like a good recovery pace. Should I do my recoveries based on HR or pace? I feel like when I focus on hitting pace I worry about it a lot more and push harder. But idk if zone 3 is too slow? It felt good though. 8:06 average 

I talked to Maddy who knows more about HR ranges and she said 140-150 is recovery, 150-160 is a power run (60%), and 170-180 is workout pace. So I tried staying in the recovery range (I wasn’t feeling like anything faster today). Averaged 141, 8:16 pace. Felt slow but nice, definitely recovery pace. Still not sure if I’ll base training off of it, I think I’ll stick with the recovery pace on recovery days but if my legs feel good I’ll go 50% pace. Then workout paces I’ll go off of feel.

Didn’t run

No running again