Sunday - At last, long runs done

36.0k 3:10:26. HR Avg 145 Max 159 Avg Pace 5:17
Course: To Bowen Bridge and then Gap Cycle loop.
Start Time: 5:10 am Temp 21 - 25C Humidity 86% - 75%.
Session Type: Long Run

Last really long run before Canberra now done. 96k for the week. I actually felt a bit tired before going out. Being a sedentary desk worker, apart from running I don't get much time on my feet. Saturday was the first match of the soccer season and I spent a couple of hours on my feet at the game ( which my team won 10-0). Then on Saturday night, the team was invited to be ball boys at the senior team's home game and I spent another couple of hours walking around keeping the boys in line.

But once I got into the run it didn't seem to be a problem. In fact I felt quite strong in the legs up till the last K. Today was about nine minutes faster than when I last did this course three weeks ago. Although that day was much hotter than today, it was still very humid again this morning.

This same run last year I did in 3:09:08 (Hr 142) but my blog entry that day says it was refreshingly cooler and I made it to Bowen Bridge (12.5k) without raising a sweat. My shorts were drenched by that stage today, so I am not reading that much into it.

There has been some interesting comments lately on HRs and predicting Marathon Pace. I find the HR Monitor invaluable in predicting MP. The only problem at this time of year when it is so hot and humid, it is hard to tell when HR creep is from heat build up or running over your aerobic level. Certainly in my long runs, my Heart Rate always goes up in the last 10k even even when I slow down. But I use my 15k runs as the best guide. When I can run the whole way at an even pace without a rise in HR, I know I am running aerobically. The fastest pace I can do this at will be my planned MP. Lets hope there are will be some cooler nights soon so I can get a more accurate picture.

I certainly will be collecting my Heart Rate data in the marathon but it will not really be guiding me much in the run. On race day I will have selected a pace and I will be sticking with that for at least the first 25k. The data will come in handy later when analysing the race and matching it up with training data.

For instance in Canberra last year I averaged 4:54 @ HR 155 overall with these 5k splits
05 4:53 151
10 4:42 155
15 4:47 155
20 4:53 155
25 4:52 155
30 4:52 156
35 5:02 158
40 5:05 159
42 5:13 159

So when the leg fatigue kicked in my HR didn't drop but went up slightly. I would expect the HR to go up 5 - 10 in the last 10k even if there was no leg fatigue (in our dreams) just because of heat dispersal problems when you start running for for over 2 hours. From my training runs prior to last year, I would have predicted 4:50 to my MP. That may have been a bit optimistic then so I will take that into consideration this year when finally coming up with my prediction.