12 miles ... easy

It's the end of another week. I didn't get to run yesterday (probably just as well the weather was awful!!) but today I went out for my usual 'long' run this am. Today it was a 12mile route and thankfully yesterday's autumn storm had subsided. The sun was out, cool but mostly blue skies, a light sprinkling of rain at times and light westerly breeze - ideal conditions.

This was to be my longest run in 3 weeks so I planned to run relatively easily. Distance rather than speed was the plan. The first mile is a steep downhill so my pace was faster than planned but after that I settled into a 7:30(ish) pace. I felt surprising good at the 8 mile mark so I thought I'd push a 'bit' harder over the final 4 miles. The run went as follows....

Looking at the plot above my pace was very erratic. I wonder was I really changing pace as often as my Garmin suggests (it didn't feel like I was) or is the plot a function of the error in the Garmin?? Averaging the pace over my mile splits looks much more uniform...

Mile 1 - 7:06 - 143bpm

Mile 2 - 7:16 - 151bpm

Mile 3 - 7:19 - 156bpm

Mile 4 - 7:23 - 152bpm (Sundays Well - uphill)

Mile 5 - 7:50 - 157bpm (Sundays Well - uphill)

Mile 6 - 7:25 - 152bpm

Mile 7 - 7:26 - 156bpm

Mile 8 - 7:24 - 158bpm

Mile 9 - 7:13 - 159bpm

Mile 10 - 7:21 - 158bpm (73:44)

Mile 11 - 7:04 - 160bpm

Mile 12 - 7:01 - 164bpm

Overall 12.19miles in 1:29:10 @ 7:19min/mile average 156bpm.

Despite my heart rate being a couple of bpm higher than some of my previous long runs and despite averaging 7:19min/mile this was an 'easy' run that felt very easy too. I wasn't even out of breath at the end!! I've often felt worse after shorter runs at a similar pace maybe I'm finally developing into a long distance runner!!

Week Total (20/10/08 - 26/10/08) - 4 sessions

29.55miles - 3:35:28 - 7:17min/mile - 156bpm