41F, 96% and calm to start, 56F, 60%, SW 10 mph at end. Went to bed and 9 and woke up at 5, one of the better night's sleep I have had in a while. RHR in bed was 60, but got it down to 53 sitting in a chair after stretching and just before heading out at 5:50, late for a long run.
This morning's temperature was a record low for the month of May by 3 degrees. Funny thing, though, the same website that posted the 41F this morning is now saying the low for the day is 48F. I'm totally suspicious, I don't think record lows mesh well with certain political viewpoints. I know how it felt going outside, and it was not 48F.
But great running weather regardless. Around here there are not a lot of people running May through August, the big marathons in Texas are in the first quarter of the year, so this isn't anybody's training cycle. I did see Coach Eric out there, though. He was running quite a bit faster than me and I didn't try to join him. I am still fat and slow. I ran 20.00 miles, from my house down to the Y and back the long way. I took two detours on the way down totalling about a mile, and I had 10.5 when I got to the Y. On the way back I took a different detour for a tenth a mile so that I would finish before I got to my front door. Speed on the way down, slightly downhill overall, was 10:05 per mile. 9:25 on the way back for an overall speed of 9:45/mile. One water break at the Y, did not carry any water with me.
On the way back there was a woman leaving the Y just before me and running pretty well, so I chased her until she turned around at 3.5, then I maintained speed the rest of the way. Overall 20.00 miles in 3:15:00, 149 bpm, 171 max. RHR 53. Weight 169, down 2 pounds from last week but still 12 pounds over my best weight. My mileage is almost back, but at this weight my speed will take a while. I took some comfort in knowing that at race weight I would have been a lot faster.
I'm pretty happy with where I am right now, got in a good run on a fantastic day. The people who didn't run today because it is off-cycle missed a historic day, my first 20-miler since January 1 (also the record low, don't forget that). |