Nice Long Run

After feeling so off in the knee(s) as a result of the intervals that I put myself through this past Wednesday it was nice to actually do a long run without having to grimace with every step. The weather this morning was perfect when I left at 7:30am - 21C, mostly cloudy, and no humidity.

I wasn't sure what to expect after my knees were so tight on Friday's run. All I knew was that I needed to run long and the speed didn't really matter all that much. Last weekend I ran 18k and I wanted to go past this if at all possible. I started off really slow and it took a few kilometres to get into any sort of groove. But once I did I was able to maintain a pretty steady pace for the majority of the run.

I managed 20km in 1:51:02 for an average pace of 5:33/km (8:56/mile). After the first three kilometres all of my splits were in the 5:20's or 5:30's except for the last one, which was 5:18. It felt especially good to be able to hold this pacing for the last 5k of the run given that a lot of it was uphill. The average heart rate ended up at 144bpm. In short, I am very pleased with how this all turned out. The knees feel a bit tight now, and hour and a half after the run, but I think more icing and foam rolling will help. Tomorrow we are off to Ottawa for a few days and then we'll be spending a week at a friend's cottage in Prince Edward County. Should be a lot of fun to take these two weeks to hang out with the family, play at the beach, and hopeful get some rest. I will continue to do my training, though blogging may be difficult on account of no Internet access at the cottage.

Also, this week was another milestone as I completed 45km, 4k more than any other week. I may actually dial things back this coming week a little bit before picking it up the week after, but we'll see.

Garmin don't lie.