Easy Recovery Run

Sunday is usually the day where I take it easy and go for a shorter run to recover from the longer Saturday runs. Typically, on a run like this, I try to keep my HR between 135 and 150 BPM. Lately, running in Lakeville is so hilly that even on my recovery runs pushed my HR up near 160 a lot of the time. I was starting to think that maybe I just wasn't in as good of shape as I thought I was, but today I got to do one of my normal routes in Madison which is almost completely flat (see workout details here). I achieved my goal of staying under 150 BPM for almost the entire time; the only times I went above is when I had to cross a busy street and I had to sprint to beat traffic.

This was a very reassuring run. While at a constant, relatively slow pace, being able to keep my HR under 150 but my pace around 10:30-10:40 is something I've been unable to do at home, but now I can feel confident that it's just because of all the hills. I'm hoping to improve my fitness to the point where I could do a flat route like this at a pace in the high-9's with a similar HR in time for the half marathon. If I can get to that point, a 9:00 pace for the entire race should be doable (assuming the race I run isn't too hilly).

I originally set out to do only 3 miles, but I was feeling good about finally having an effortless run, so I tagged on another mile.

It wasn't all rosy though. At around the 2 mile mark, I was overcome by a wave of weakness that lasted for about 45 seconds. I don't know if anyone ever gets these besides me, but this was the first time I'd ever encountered it on a run. Normally, it occurs when I've had nothing to eat but junk food all day (especially Frito's for some reason), and I have to stop what I'm doing and lay down for 5 minutes. This episode wasn't nearly so severe, and I was able to keep running, but the same feeling came over me. I'm hoping that I just didn't have enough to eat for breakfast. I may not have adjusted my diet enough to compensate for burning an additional 3000 calories a week these days.