Sunday, February 7, 2010

Sunday Long Run

Coach Jeff scheduled a 2 hour zone 2 long run with 3 minute surges every 20 minutes. I wanted to put in a good effort today after last week's less than stellar long run. I needed to get an early start as I had a busy morning ahead of me and Mrs. Ansky had to work today so an afternoon long run was out of the question. When I left the house at 5:50 the temperature was 16f with a Real Feel around 6. I started out slowly and eased into a comfortable pace. The first few surges came easily and I was able to recover settle back into my zone 2 pace with no problem. Needless to say, as the run progressed, the surges became harder. The seconds would not move fast enough on my Garmin. I covered 13.80 miles in 2:00:09 for an average pace of 8:42/mile. It was definitely a better effort than last week. When I uploaded my run to my log I saw that my average heart rate was more in the lower end of zone 3 than in zone 2. I felt nice and relaxed and didn't feel like I was working too hard. I am still learning how to train by heart rate so it'll be a work in process. Jeff has some interesting runs scheduled this week so I'll be sure to write about them as the week goes on.

One of the benefits of running is that I will not feel the least bit guilty chowing down tonight at a Super Bowl party at our friend's house. I honestly can care less who wins. I am looking forward to some good food, a beer or two (maybe 3), and good friends. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

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