First Run 2.0

After several days of not feeling any pain in my foot, I decided to test it out on an easy run. I don't know if it was the new shoes, time off, the significantly slower pace, or all of the above but I felt great.

I put on my new heart rate monitor and went out the door with the goal of keeping my heart rate between 70-80% of my maximum heart rate (about 154-168 bpm). I was able to program the watch to alert me when I was exceeding this limit. What I learned was I'm not nearly in the shape I thought I was in and need to run at a significantly slower pace.  I quickly got to my target range and needed to back off the pace. To stay in my target range I felt like I was crawling out there (probably because I was). I felt like I could have easily held the pace for another 7 miles. I ran 3.5 miles in 26:44 (~7:38 mile pace). My average heart rate was 162 bpm and the highest I got up to was 169 bpm.

The only redeeming factor for me is that estimating from VDOT tables I'm in approximately 17:50-18:10 5k shape (For those that don't know about training using VDOT, I'll hopefully get a page in the near future on this blog that will explain it in more detail). It's not a great time, but better than I thought I was. Of course estimates from a table in a book are significantly different than an actual race result. Depending on how my training goes this month, I may look for a low key 5k got get a better estimate of my fitness. One of my goals by the end of 2011 is to get back under 17 minutes for 5k. With proper training and staying healthy, this should be an obtainable goal.