Notes
7mi, ~41min @ M pace
5:57 avg
Fantastic M pace run today. Felt so easy. Way different than the previous ones I've done.
To start I just tried to dial into the right effort. The big thing was "sustainable". If it didn't feel sustainable, I needed to slow down. However I never felt that way. I was surprised by the first split, but I guess there was nearly as much downhill as there was up, so effectively right on pace (6:05 goal, 6:07 actual). Second mile I just tried to keep the same effort, but was surprised by the 5:56. Tried to feel more relaxed than I already was, but next mile was still 5:54. So after that I just kept thinking sustainable effort and worried a bit less about pace.
The fourth mile was gonna be slow anyways with a big long uphill. But 6:27 was faster than normal. And again, keeping the same effort, somehow the downhill mile was 5:24. I laughed a bit and tried to settle more. At that point I started thinking about going longer than the originally planned 6.5 / 40 minutes. I went back and forth but decided not to go up to 45. I am still coming off of lower mileage for the past couple weeks so really need to make sure I don't overdue it. However by the time I got close to 40 I was also close to 7 miles, so I just went to a full 7 and ended with 41 minutes and change.
Aerobically I felt like I could go for another 7. However looking at my HR data, I was at ~170bpm the entire time. Not exactly M pace HR, that's more like T pace. Certainly didn't feel like T pace effort. I don't think I will read into this too much as I think how I feel RPE-wise is more important. But I will see how I recover.
Speaking of recovery, by the end I was feeling some soreness in my quads but more so in my hip flexors. I assume it's DOMS from lift this morning. But I will keep a close eye on it and take tomorrow real easy. Everything else felt good, lower legs included.
Will see how I feel tomorrow and Wednesday as I feel out the rest of this week. Planning on getting back up to 50. I will probably stay there for 1-2 more weeks before moving up. Given the number of 40ish weeks I've had since my last 50, I'd like to step back up to 50 first before I go past it. And now is the time I'm starting no distractions and training coming first. This week is starting out well but I still have a little catching up to do. I think I'll be in a relatively smooth routine with solid free time numbers starting next week.