Last Monday I had an awesome run. It was 43 degrees outside and I ran exactly 5 miles in 1 hour (12:00 min/mile pace). I was surprised because I was pretty tired and not sure if I had done too much the week before. As I was going, I felt like I was actually running again for the first time in forever, not just bouncing up and down basically in place. I did hit 171 a few times and slowed down to walk each time it happened, and decided I would run again when I got below 140. Each walk break was around 1:30, so not too long. My previous fastest pace staying under 171 was over 12:50, so this was quite a breakthrough run.
...then Wednesday happened. In just 36 short hours, temps were up 30 degrees, and it seemed my HR was up 30 bpm as well! I was planning to do an hour run through River Oaks from my apartment before my dad came to pick me up to go to San Antonio. It was raining when I started, but not too bad. After about 3 minutes I decided my hour run was going to be about a 30 minute run. I couldn't run more than 1:30 at a time without topping out my HR. Then the saddest part was when I was walking, I tried to let my HR get back down to 140, like Monday, and it wouldn't go back below 145. Nice. So that run was about a whole 2 miles in about 30 minutes. Watch out.
Saturday provided us with more of the glorious weather we have been having...not! It was around 75 degrees with 90% humidity (about like Wednesday). I had been planning to run this run all along without looking at my heart rate monitor. I wanted to run a long run like I used to, just by feel, and see how awful my heart rate ended up. I also wanted to just run so I had some idea of how the half marathon will go. By mile 8 I had to go back to heart rate training...my average HR was 177 for the first 8 miles, at an 11:45 avg pace. Again, quite a difference from my run on Monday. I kept it under 171 for the next 2 miles and then ran the last 2 miles again by feel. Total avg pace was just over 12 min/miles and I hurt. Ugh. Gotta love all this fun stuff. I looked back and miles 4, 5, and 6, had average heart rates of 183, 185, and 186, respectively. This was all for a pace of ~11:25 min/mile. Lovely. Safe to say my issues, whatever they are, are still around. But then I also wonder now if I'm just getting plain out of shape, so trying to run "faster" would make my HR skyrocket. Sad that in February, my half marathon pace was 8:50 average or so with an avg HR somewhere around 183...for all 13 miles.
On a brighter note for Saturday, Kelly and her boyfriend Noah were in town to run their last long run for Houston as well. Kelly breezed through her first 21-miler like it was nothing. Safe to say she is meant to be a runner. I'm glad they were able to run with my group and that they got the "best" of Houston's weather to train in. This way if race day does happen to have awful weather, they will know they have been ok in that weather before.
...then Wednesday happened. In just 36 short hours, temps were up 30 degrees, and it seemed my HR was up 30 bpm as well! I was planning to do an hour run through River Oaks from my apartment before my dad came to pick me up to go to San Antonio. It was raining when I started, but not too bad. After about 3 minutes I decided my hour run was going to be about a 30 minute run. I couldn't run more than 1:30 at a time without topping out my HR. Then the saddest part was when I was walking, I tried to let my HR get back down to 140, like Monday, and it wouldn't go back below 145. Nice. So that run was about a whole 2 miles in about 30 minutes. Watch out.
Saturday provided us with more of the glorious weather we have been having...not! It was around 75 degrees with 90% humidity (about like Wednesday). I had been planning to run this run all along without looking at my heart rate monitor. I wanted to run a long run like I used to, just by feel, and see how awful my heart rate ended up. I also wanted to just run so I had some idea of how the half marathon will go. By mile 8 I had to go back to heart rate training...my average HR was 177 for the first 8 miles, at an 11:45 avg pace. Again, quite a difference from my run on Monday. I kept it under 171 for the next 2 miles and then ran the last 2 miles again by feel. Total avg pace was just over 12 min/miles and I hurt. Ugh. Gotta love all this fun stuff. I looked back and miles 4, 5, and 6, had average heart rates of 183, 185, and 186, respectively. This was all for a pace of ~11:25 min/mile. Lovely. Safe to say my issues, whatever they are, are still around. But then I also wonder now if I'm just getting plain out of shape, so trying to run "faster" would make my HR skyrocket. Sad that in February, my half marathon pace was 8:50 average or so with an avg HR somewhere around 183...for all 13 miles.
On a brighter note for Saturday, Kelly and her boyfriend Noah were in town to run their last long run for Houston as well. Kelly breezed through her first 21-miler like it was nothing. Safe to say she is meant to be a runner. I'm glad they were able to run with my group and that they got the "best" of Houston's weather to train in. This way if race day does happen to have awful weather, they will know they have been ok in that weather before. As you can see, I am having fun now with all my little graphs and everything else. Not that they show me anything I didn't already know, but they are still fun. This week will be more of the same, training-wise, and this weekend I will hopefully run 13-14 for a long run, but we shall see. The 12 on Saturday beat me up!
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