Today's Post is Brought To You By The Letter "H"

As in Heat, Humidity, Hills and Heart Rate.

These words were the theme of my run this morning.

After doing some shorter races over the last few weeks, my endurance has really taken a hit. It's now time for me to start building back up my base (aka Aerobic Engine).

The plan for today was to do a long run in heart rate zone 2 (154-162 bpm). The focus of this run was just on trying to keep my HR in this zone. I wasn't concerned with my pace, just my pulse.

Thanks to several factors (83° F with 80% Relative Humidity, some big hills, and the fact that my legs were still tired from yesterday's workout), my pace was pretty slow.

Here's a chart of my Heart Rate during my run:

Zone 2 is pretty hard to see on this chart, but I was pretty successful at keeping my HR where it needed to be, with the exception of some hills during miles 4 through 7. Isn't this chart cool? It's all part of my new training website, TrainingPeaks. I'll discuss this in more detail in a later post.


Totals from today:

Run

10.80 miles in 1:34:51 (8:46 min/mile pace)
Avg HR = 159 bpm
Max HR = 172 bpm
15 minutes of stretching and attempting to cool-down after the run...very hot out this morning!!

YESTERDAY'S WORKOUT:

Run

1 mile repeats with 2 minutes rest in between
Warm-up (ran to the track) - 1.32 miles in 9:32 (7:13 min/mile pace)
1) 6:43
2) 6:48
3) 7:08
Cool-down - 1.32 miles in 10:46 (8:09 min/mile pace)
Total Workout: 5.96 miles in 51:47
Legs we a little sluggish and I never really got in a good rhythm, so I decided to cut the workout short after 3 repeats instead of the normal 4.

Swim

10 minutes of drills
10 minutes of swimming at comfortable pace
Totals: 960yd in 20:00


MONDAY'S WORKOUT:

Bike

10 minute warm-up
45 minute Spin Class with some good, hard intervals
5 minute cool-down