Giving it a Go

[PaulJ]

Paul .. let me know when you ready to run again .. hopefully that is your cold / flu for the winter season

TheEd

Thanks, Ed. I have definitely been under the weather - not quite sure what it is really, a sort of endless cold. Don't feel brilliant today but I am going to try to go for a SLOW run this afternoon unless I am not feeling great after lunch. I will let you know how I get on.

Ok. Good news is that I did go for a run. I was determined to run really slowly and stay mainly in zone 3. Bad news is that I didn't manage it. I am staggered at how hard it is run in zone 3. I started off, glad to be going and with some nice classic 60s songs helping me move along. It was a bit cold so I did not start ultra slowly but I was definitely not putting in any effort. I got to 1km and the app told me I was running at 6.18 (note figures are not quite the same as app gives me at end of run), which is 30 secs slower than usual so I thought it was OK but I did realise I needed to slow down a bit. So, I focused on not putting in any effort and was glad to see my pace dropping down to around 6.24. All good, I thought, and nice to be running without putting in any effort. After 3 or 4 kms, I could began to feel it a bit and the pace dropped a bit more but I tried to stay relaxed. When it got down to 6.29, however, and I knew I was nearly done I thought it was ok to put some effort in just for the last kilometer or two. 

Anyway here are the metrics:

speed: 1K: 6.13. 2K: 6.35   3K: 6.23  4K: 6.30   5k: 6.31   6K:  6.30   7k: 6.15  8km (part) 6.03. Average: 6.25

heart rate: Moved above 146 bpm more or less from start of run and stayed between 150 and 165 for first 15 mins. then dropped below 146 for about ten minutes, hitting a low of 128 and then moved above 146 for the last ten minutes hitting a high of 170. Average: 154 bpm.

heart rate zones: 5mins in zone 3; 6 mins in zone 4; and 34 minutes in zone 5.

Maybe what I need to do is aim to run at 7 min ks and not worry if the speed drops as the run goes on? I wonder how long it will take me to get to a run that is mainly in zone 3!