Sunday, January 21, 2007

Easy Run in the Sun

Today I felt pretty good - no ill effects from yesterday's race.....so I decided to take my planned 5 mile run. I would take it easy at a nice, long run pace.

The great part about this time of year here in Florida is that I don't have to get up before sunrise to run. The best time to run is kind of the opposite from running up north. In the winter time, it is nice to run during the day - the temperatures and humidity are generally good. If it is a little too warm at mid day, you can always get a comfortable run in during the morning or just before sunset. On the other hand, in the summer time, the heat and humidity take a lot of the valuable energy you need to run - and the only time of day that it is bearable to run is just before or at sunrise. By 9 am, it is too hot to run. I end up retreating to the tread mill, like folks up north do when it is too cold or snowy to run.

So during the winter and early spring, I get to sleep in a bit before my weekend runs, and during the week I can go for a run on my lunch hour.

Anyway, I enjoyed a nice, easy run today. I did my usual 5 mile route, taking 30 sec - 1 min breaks each mile. My goal was to go easy and keep my heart rate in my aerobic zone (avg less than 160 bpm). The results:

Mile 1: 10:49
Mile 2: 11:27
Mile 3: 11:35
Mile 4: 11:51
Mile 5: 11:27

Total: 57:12 (11:26 mile pace)

Avg heart rate: 154 bpm
Max heart rate: 171 bpm (on last sprint at the end)

During my run, I finished listening to Nigel on Running from the Reaper and then listened to Steve Runner on Phedippedations.

As always, it was a great day to run!

1 comment:

Susan said...

What a great start to the day!