Despite the gusting wind I enjoyed a nice steady long run earlier today. My shins were a little sore (probably from wearing spikes in yesterday’s cross country race) so after a relatively slow 8 minute first mile, I headed to the comfort of the local soccer fields and ran a few loops to ease the pain. I’d forgotten to turn the “automatic laps” feature of my Garmin back on after last Thursday’s track workout, so decided to just run easy and not worry too much about the pace.
After about 7 or 8 miles I noticed my average pace was down to around 7:45 per mile, so I set myself a goal of getting it down to an average of 7:30 per mile by the time I reached 16 miles. I was also conscious of my heart rate and pleased to see it was in the high 130s to low 140s for the most part. It climbed a little as I ran into the wind, but generally it was surprisingly low.
The remainder of the run went well although I could have done with something to drink around the 12 or 13 mile mark. My legs were feeling great though and it was easy to pick up the pace slightly and work on the average pace.
With about a mile to go, the Garmin finally read 7:30 per mile and I was able to relax a little – not that I felt stressed at any point during the run, but I was working a little harder than earlier on.
Back at the house it was great to analyze the stats and very satisfying to see the average heart rate of 135 beats per minute.
I was also relieved I’d chosen to do the 30-Day Shred workout before heading out for a run. I didn’t think I’d be up for Jillian Michaels after a long run and I was right…..