Weekend Long Run - 15km (more Zone 2 stuff)

dannewton just finished a 15.09km run, that lasted for 126 minutes.
This run helped dannewton burn 1209.0 calories.

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Description from Strava: Its the weekend! Which should mean it is time for parkrun again!

er except, no Parkrun was completed today...

Why? Well I was just super tired I guess! It's been a busy kind of week, sorting stuff out at home, and dealing with more stress in work than usual. I've also stepped up my mileage considerably by running an extra 9km compared to last week.

Its taken it's toll, especially when compounded with the unexpected late night last night, helping my partner get stuff ready for the carboot on Sunday. So when the the alarm this morning went of at 7am, I wasn't having it, and simply rolled back over to sleep. By 9:30am I felt a bit better rested, but as I had missed parkrun, I now needed to find a different route for today.

I decided to aim for 15km as that is what I would have done for the parkrun, and I also decided I was going to run into town for a change. I then remembered a route I did 3 months ago, that was quite interesting:

https://www.strava.com/activities/8893894291

It was also the route that caused me the injury that has taken near enough 3 months to heal, so hopefully this time I can do it with out any more mishaps!

Another thing I wanted to try was to concentrate on low heart rate running again. In my Last Post I mentioned it was annoying having to check my watch every 30 seconds to make sure my heart rate was in the right zone, and I received a reply from @alzee who very helpfully shared a way of setting an alert on the watch. This way I could focus on running and only have to slow down to walk if the watch vibrated.

Alarm set at the top of zone 2 - 146bpm:

Alarm set, it was time to head out. It was a beautiful day out there, comfortably warm, and nice and bright in the (late) morning sunshine.

The loop I was running is reasonably simple. The first half runs through town until I get to the River Witham. I then turn right to follow it out of town, until I come across the bypass at which point I then follow that road home.

I started the run at a slow pace due to be mindful of heart rate and that lasted about 4 minutes and then

bzzzzt

Ah dammit, I'm going too fast, and that that has set off the alarm

I walked until the Heart Rate decreased to 132bpm, and then started running again until

bzzzzt

Not again!

This stop/start running continued for the next 40 minutes, and was starting to become a little bit frustrating. I seemed to have managed a sensible pace on the last 2 sessions and was able to keep a low enough heart rate, but today I seemed to be really struggling.

And I remembered, I am still feeling quite tired.

Lots of thins can lead to an elevated resting heart rate including stress/heat/illness and lack of sleep,

I have been lacking sleep!

Even an increase in 5pbm in hear rate, will lead to higher numbers when exercising which may explain why I struggled with this today.

I kept up the stop/start palaver while I meandered around town...past the bus station...

Over the bridge (with a view of the magnificent Lincoln Cathedral)...

And then down along the side of the River.

I was approaching halfway by this point, and mercifully I was not setting off as many alarms, so was beginning to enjoy the run a little more.

The views also improved, gone was the boring city streets, now I could run along the side of the river, with flowers and trees and hedgerows.

I could see plenty of butterflies and dragonflies. I heard birdsong too, but I don't know what the birds were (I'm rubbish at identifying bird calls!)

And then before I knew it, I joined back onto the bypass to run the last 3km home. I'd been doing better with keeping my heart rate down, but that all went out of the window when this hill appeared!

Bzzzzt

Bzzzzzzzzt

Alright, alright, I take the hint, I'll walk up it!

Once at the top I was able to get running again, and it was an easy plod to get home.

At 2 hours, this was a very slow pace (I would have done this in 1 and a half hours in the past!). But I'm sticking with this easy, low heart rate stuff for no so, it is what it is I guess!

For the rest of today, the plan is rest. I'm gonna put my feet up and shove a couple of films on. I think I'm gonna try harder to get to bed at a decent time considering the early start for the car boot tomorrow.

I also have only 2 days to work next week before having 6 days off, so plenty of time to rest then too!

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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/9678027566

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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