......or maybe just a function of humidity, hills, and heartrate.
227.8
RHR = 40
Ran two laps of the Back Cove path today. It's 3.55 miles around so the total run was 11.5K. The total run was 56:56.
We ran the first lap in 29:45, my heart rate was 108 on average. The second lap was interesting: I ran 27:10, which is 7:39 per mile. My race pace at BtB was 7:24. 15 seconds slower per mile than 10K race pace should be a solid anaerobic threshold pace (actually, a bit too fast) but my heartrate averaged only 128, a good 10 beats below threshold rate, during this lap. The conditions were perfect today--cool and breezy and the course is almost flat. BtB was hot, humid, and hilly. I was rested (although I was rested before BtB as well). But the run felt easy today, and my HR data backed up the "easy" feeling.
Why? Do the heat and the hills make that much of a difference?
3 comments:
Yep, I think they do. Here is what Colin had to say to me this morning about his run last night compared with last week (both times in Yoyogi):
"unlike last week when I was in 4:35-4:40 territory while keeping the HR at 145 or slightly above, tonight my best lap was at 4:57 pace and thereafter the pace slowed to 5:15s even though HR was still bumping up against 150. Very hot and extremely humid - the worst evening conditions of the year."
Plus, you almost certainly have your aerobic conditioning starting to show through. It can be a surprise when it seems to just bob up like that, though it is built on many weeks of work. Don't argue with it.
Ah, yes. This helps explain why although my fitness should have been improving my race times slowed consistently as the weather got worse (other than that f#*king Mother's Day debacle). I looked back in my blog and was reminded that I ran my AT workouts in May at 7:10-7:15 pace, with HR at 138 or so--faster than my BtB race pace! So I picked a target race that coincides with the worst race conditions--other than the dead of winter--in Maine. I ran 7:24 with HR at 150. Oh well, I look forward to an M/2 on a cool October morning. Too bad the course is hilly and gravity sucks.
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