Thursday & Friday

I was determined to get runs in on both these days this week. With Wednesday's intensity being less than last week I pulled up pretty good yesterday (Thursday). Certainly the back pain of last week stayed away. But with the late run Wednesday and a couple of beers afterwards (read my last post again and you might be able to detect the influence), I was not doing a morning run. Plus, I got my ass chewed (with good reason) for always being late home. And I had to give a 3-hour lecture in the afternoon straight after lunch, so there was not much choice but to run home. I took it pretty easy and threw in two laps of Gaien Picture Gallery. (Sorry Satohi, I would have been about an hour before you). Stats: 11.5 km at HRavg = 131, av pace = 5:41. So basically a recovery run, but some sections were at a reasonable aerobic rate.

This morning I did the reverse run back to work. I was keeping the heart rate up a little, though with all the stop-start down Higashi-Gaien Dori it is hard to get into and keep a good rhythm.

At the picture gallery I stashed my bag behind a vending machine and went for a bit of a gallop. I got the heart rate up to 150 and then decided to keep it there for a few laps to see if there would be any drift. The laps are 1.325 km and the times for four laps were 5:38, 5:48 (4:14/km), 5:51, 5:57 (4:28/km)  -- and heart rate was pretty constant. So definite drift this time. As Ewen said in the comment to my last post, the Maffetone formula is too generalised what with its age basis. It is probably a good guide for untrained runners, but for anyone who has been running for a few years, I think you really have to go back to your actual maximum heart rate and take it from there. In other words, Hadd wins!!  So, at least now I have a benchmark that I can hope to improve on over the next few weeks. 

Anyway, today was spot on 14 km, which gets me to 68 for the week and 391 for the month. No complaints.