More Running In The Dark

Today’s Run

Time – 1:01:51
Distance – 5.5 miles
Pace – 11:13 min/mi
Elevation – 155 ft.

Used Strava tonight instead of Runkeeper. It worked just fine for the run. My phone/watch combo wouldn’t change the volume on my music right, but that could have been a different problem. Time will tell. All in all, though, the run was fine. I tried to go a little longer for this comfortable run. That will be the goal going forward. Add mileage on mileage days, and keep time-based runs to the same types of schedules. That means that I can make the midweek runs of 4–5 miles more of a 5–6 or 6–7 mile kind of run, but the easy runs of 40–50 minutes will stay 40–50 minutes. I’ll just go a little farther as I get faster.

Running in the Dark

Running in the dark is a weird feeling. I wear the reflective vest to be seen, but it doesn’t make the roadway any brighter. It’s an interesting feeling to run when you can’t see much. It’s like floating through the night. Especially when the legs feel good. I’m surprised that they did, with all the mileage (for me, at least) I’ve been doing this week. Having said that, I’m glad it was an easier day. I don’t know if I’d be feeling as good if I’d pushed hard tonight.

I can tell that the workouts and the mileage are having an effect. There’s a hill that I take to get home whenever I go out to the north. It’s the only way to get back that doesn’t involve adding 2–3 more miles. Plus, it’s a good workout hill, and, as I found out tonight, an indicator of fitness.

Running up the hill is MUCH easier than it used to be. I can go up the hill in the 145–150 bpm range at an easy clip, whereas a month ago the same “easy” feeling would have sprung my heart rate above 160. It’s good to know that all this running is building something that I’ll be able to use in April.

Maybe I should find a 5K for this fall…