Long Run - 22km (easy zone 2 effort which turned into a PB attempt!)

dannewton just finished a 22.73km run, that lasted for 127 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 1671.0 calories.

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Description from Strava: Had initially aimed for an easy long run today, felt really good so at halfway I picked up the pace, and was rewarded with a new PB for the Half Marathon distance! 🥳

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So that was slightly unexpected I guess!

After yesterdays easy(ish) 10km effort, I was aiming for an easy long run effort today. I knew I wanted to run at least 21km so that I could get to my distance target for the week. I was at 49km so far, and with a goal of 70km, I just needed 21km more. As many people know, 21km is equivalent to 13 miles, otherwise known as Half Marathon distance.

I've got several local routes that are off this length, and for todays route I went for the out-and-back run down to Navenby. The main reason is it is reasonably flat and quiet, but it had been awhile since I had been down there, so it would make a nice change

After a lazy start to the morning (it was a Sunday after all) I eventually got all my stuff together and left the house just after 10 am.

The blue skies and sunshine from yesterday had already disappeared, but at least the weather was dry and cool, so still good running conditions

The first half of the run passed quite quickly. I was keeping the effort sensible and was making sure my heart rate was below the zone 2 limit of 148bpm. It was really quiet on the roads but I suppose it is a Sunday morning, and many other people are also taking it easy.

I suppose I normally wouldn't notice as the 'long run' is usually done on the Saturday, but as mentioned yesterday I had prior engagements

I headed into Navenby, and as I looked at my watch, I realised I was actually making good time considering the relatively easy effort. I was feeling pretty good too

I carried on through the village, and then at the next village of Wellingore, I did a small triangle-shaped loop, and then I turned and headed for home. Coming back through Navenby I was still feeling good, and decided I fancied pushing a little harder.

I changed the display on my watch from 'heart rate' to 'pace' and settled into a pace of 5:00min/km (compared to the 5:50-6:00 pace I had previously been averaging).

You can see this change on the graph below at approx 14km

It might not seem a great deal of difference, going from 5:50 to 5:00, but I can asure you it was a much harder effort. I wasn't going all out, but it was a significant effort.

The graph shows I managed to maintain this from 14km to 18km, where I was starting to feel the effort. At this point I eased back off as I could feel my legs starting to hurt, and I didn't want to over do. It wasn't a race after all, and pushing just for the sake of an arbitary time would be silly.

Then at just before 20km I checked the time and did the maths, and realised if I pushed hard for the last little bit, I stood a good chance of getting in under 2 hours.... with one last burst of effort...

I did it!

That last little push was enough to take just over a minute of my previous PB to finish at 1:57:43.

As you can see by the 3rd best effort, In all my running over the years, I've only managed to get under 2 hours twice!

And that bit is interesting, as my Garmin watch as a 'race predictor' function, whereby it uses all the info it gathers on my training, such as pace, and frequency and effort... and it provides the below guesses

And apparenlty it believes I can complete a half marathon in 1 hour 37 minutes?!

That is a full 20 minutes faster than today. I admit that although I did push hard, I didn't give everything as it is only a training run, and not actually a race. But why on earth does it think I can take a full 20 minutes of todays time?

same goes for the other distances. My recent 5km PB is 23:11, and that was a significant effort. Yet it says I can go almost 2 minutes faster!?

I dunno. Is it just completely wrong... or is it my fault, am I just lacking in confidence? Would I be able to achieve close to these times by just trying harder (I'm trying pretty hard now) Is my training not up to scratch, so that I've put in the necessary base mileage, but my speed work leaves a lot to be desired?

my speedwork is pretty poor by the way!

So, does anyone else have this function on their watch? Is it as wildly inaccurate as mine, or is it a useful predictor of your running performance

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If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/12589029627

About the Athlete: Living in the UK, I am an intermittent Runner, but always striving for more consistency. When I'm not training I can be found photographing insects or listening to really loud angry music (which is the best type of music obviously!)

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