May as well...

It had rained earlier and cooled things down to 76 degrees at 6:00 pm when I headed out for the run. The nice temperature and the threat of more rain had me eager to try to run faster. I also had taken the battery out of a garage door opener and put it in my heart rate monitor. It has been a long time since I have gotten to use it, so I wanted to see how high I could get it. So, I ran like crazy.

Mile 1 at 7:54 and Mile 2 gave me back to back under 8:00's at 7:58. (When is the last time that has happened?) Miles 3 and 4 didn't fair as well as I slipped to 8:09 and 8:06. I tried sprinting the last tenth of a mile hoping to get the last mile under 8:00, but was too far behind AND out of steam. I finished about a half-mile from home and sat on a bridge wondering if I would ever have the energy to walk the rest of the way home.

My total run time was 32:07 for a pace of 8:02. When I saw I was only seconds away from under 8:00, I was kind of mad, but if I had pushed much harder, I don't know if I would have survived.

Since I couldn't remember what my max heart rate should be, I looked online to find a formula. I found several on Wkikipedia:

The "Old" Formula: 220-age = for me, 179

HRmax = 206.3 − (0.711 × age) = for me, 177.15
(Often attributed to "Londeree and Moeschberger from the University of
Missouri")

HRmax = 217 − (0.85 × age) = for me, 182.15
(Often attributed to "Miller et al. from Indiana University")

HRmax = 208 − (0.7 × age) = for me, 179.3
(Another "tweak" to the traditional formula is known as the Tanaka method.

The average of the 4 equals 179.4. I guess I will have to go with the Miller formula, since my max was 188. My average was 173 and minimum was 72. My recovery was from 188 (the time of running hard that last 1/10th mile) to 135.

NOTE: As I was talking to Shane (I believe it was on Tuesday), he mentioned the start of his St. Jude's Marathon training. I asked if it was already time to start it. I looked at the schedule I go by, and sure enough, I was supposed to start mine the day before, too. I was also supposed to start mu Clarksville Half training on August 1. I have been so concerned with completing a Saturday 10 miler I haven't really given thought to the schedule. I thought I would get to running the long 10 miler and run it until the schedule called for the 10 miler and I would follow the schedule from then on. The schedule calls for 6 Saturday, so I may do that instead of trying the 10 again.