Afternoon Run - 8km (taking it easy)

over 1 year ago

dannewton just finished a 8.41km run, that lasted for 64 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 687.0 calories.

Description from Strava:
First day of the week, first run of the week!

Due to the fact that I was so pleased with how the last week of training went, I thought it was time take it up a notch.

obviously while still taking it slow etc!

For the last 3 Mondays I have half walked and half run about 6km. As I did so well last Wednesday with running almost the whole 6km in one go, today the plan was to do it all in one go again... plus a little bit extra.

I decided to run for 30 minutes in one direction along the bypass, and to then turn around and run home, for a total of 60 minutes. One of the things I want to change with my training this time around is to base my sessions around a certain time taken, as opposed to the amount of distance covered.

when running a set distance I get too obsessed with pace, and I think I'm pushing harder than my level of fitness will allow for

Instead, I let my heart rate dictate the pace, and any time my Heart rate rose to over 150pbm, I slowed the pace down so it would decrease again. This means that for most of today I was averaging over 7mins per km, which is around a minute slower than I would normally do this kind of run at.

The aim of doing this slower running is to improve aerobic fitness, and in time (if I'm consistent) my fitness will increase so I can run faster at the same level of hear rate.

thats the plan at least.

It also means I will be able to run further in the same amount of time.

The weather for the run today was pretty good to begin with, warm but not hot, and no rain for once. There was a pretty strong wind blowing though, and I suspect that will blow in rain later this evening.

I kept the pace slow and steady and managed to get to 4km in 30 minutes. Every thing felt nice and easy, until I turned round and realised that the strong tailwind had suddenly become a strong headwind!

I tried to keep the heart rate low, but with the extra effort required it went a little bit higher than I wanted:

I wanted to stay in zone 2, and I mostly managed that despite the wind lol.

Also this week I want to increase the time spent running, and that will be easiest by adding a 4th smaller run in to the week. Probably a Thursday I think. So 60 mins Monday and Wednesday, 30 mins on Thursday, and then the long run on Saturday.

That'll give 2 days for strength conditioning type stuff (Tues and Fri?) and then a day of rest on Sunday

Is that a good plan?

I dunno, I guess I'll give it a shot, and then adjust it if required!

If you would like to check out this activity on strava you can see it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/9646601553

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!)