Evaluation Run

The plan for today was 3 miles at 6:30 pace while wearing the heart rate monitor to check recovery. Eric and I worked out our schedule so that I could do this outside instead of on the treadmill... thanks =) We have a 1200 meter loop by our house that is pretty clear of snow and ice right now so that is where I headed. 4 degrees (above zero!!) and a 9 mph wind... not too shabby. A 2 mile warm-up and I was ready to go. The first mile felt really relaxed.. 6:32. The second mile was more of a mental battle than anything. About halfway through I started thinking maybe I would stop at 2 or maybe 2.5 or maybe I should just suck it up and finish what I was out there to do. Mile 2 passed in 6:28 but I was still waffling about how much longer I wanted to keep up the effort. I could feel that I wasn't relaxed anymore and not surprising when I checked my pace I had slowed to 6:38. Finally I got my head in the right place (thanks jackelope) and I focused on relaxing.. a quick look at the watch showed that I was back (6:22 pace). Mile 3 ended up being a 6:31 and a good lesson in what running relaxed can do for me. The most surprising part of the whole workout was the recovery. I have a pretty high max heart rate (don't know what it is for sure)... my average heart rates were 176, 184, and 191 and I was recovered to 130 in 1:22, 120 in 1:41, and 105 in 2:01. I didn't think I would recover that quickly. It has been 5 months since I have been back running again and I am surprised at what I have gained in that time. I ran the equivalent of a 20:10 5k today and while it was challenging it certainly wasn't a race effort. I am looking forward to racing now.. I have a 5k planned for April 14.

Yesterday I had to cut my recovery run short.. my left IT band was tight after Sunday's run and my knee hurt bad enough at 3 miles that I knew I needed to stop. A lot of stretching and icing paid off because it felt fine today.

Monday- 3 miles
Tuesday- 7 miles with 3 mile evaluation (6:32, 6:28, 6:31)