Some friends of ours were moving into their very first house yesterday morning, and we'd volunteered to help, since they are good friends and have helped us with lots of stuff. So anyway, knowing that I'd probably be tired from helping them move, I decided to try my hand at getting up way too early and running. My scheduled run called for 4 fast miles, so I figured that I needed to allow 50 minutes for my run, including warm up and cool down. We needed to be in southwest Fort Worth by 8 AM, which meant leaving no later than 7:30 AM, so I set my alarm for 4:40 AM. And what do you know? I actually got up when my alarm went off and was out the door by 5:30 AM! I couldn't believe it. It turned out to be a pretty good run. I set out with a goal of 10 min./mile (I know, I know—I'm slow). My final time was 38:46. Here are the splits:
Averages: 9:41 min/mile pace - HR 171 bpm
Here's the link of my run at motionbased.com: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5068862.
This morning (much later than yesterday morning), I went out for my weekly long run. The schedule called for 6 miles, so I headed over to a nearby greenbelt/park, where I knew I could do 3 miles out and back. Now, at this stage of my program, this is supposed to be a long, slow run. For me, it was long, and it was definitely slow, but at an average of 161 bpm, my heart rate was much higher than it should've been. My pace goal was 11:30 min./mile, which is appropriate according to the pace calculator at McMillan Running. However, I probably should've taken into account the temperature and humidity, as well as the 20 mph winds, and slowed down some. Here are my splits:
| Mile | Time | Avg HR | Cal |
| 1 | 11:24 | 146 | 154 |
| 2 | 11:30 | 154 | 157 |
| 3 | 11:29 | 160 | 161 |
| 4 | 11:28 | 164 | 159 |
| 5 | 11:20 | 169 | 160 |
| 6 | 11:23 | 175 | 160 |
Interestingly, except for when I was heading straight into the wind, I felt pretty good—especially in the last two miles.
So this marks the end of Week 5 of Hal Higdon's Intermediate 5K program, and my second 10 mile weekend. This past week also concluded my first 70+ mile month, and my first-ever Yoga session. This coming week, my mileage should continue to climb, as my weekend miles go up—5 miles on Saturday, and 7 miles on Sunday (which will be a new record long run for me). We've also got our second Yoga session (substituting this for strength and stretching).