HR Training

I've been trying to come up with a weekly routine that I'll stick with.  I think I make my plans too optimistically, and then get frustrated when I can fit in or complete the plan. 

Even though I felt a little weary from Sunday's run, I wanted to do some sort of "recovery" run rather than no run at all.  I wound up doing a short 30 minute session on the treadmill, and I used my heart rate monitor to make sure I didn't press the pace too hard.  I set a ceiling of 140bpm (80%) and tried to maintain a pace that would keep me under that figure.  It proved to be a fun way to accomplish an easy run.  It still gave me something to measure and challenge myself with, but forced me to run at a recovery-type pace.  I think that kind of run is actually better than having a complete rest day and not running at all.  I read somewhere you get the same benefit from an easy run that you would from taking a complete day off...in most cases.

I might make this a normal practice after particularly hard runs, like long distances and races.  It also helps me to evaluate my fitness and progress.  I had weaned myself from the heart monitor, but have lost touch with where my training zones are or if they've shifted. For this run, I could see the cardiac drift take effect as I got to around the 20th minute.  My perception of exertion hadn't changed and neither had my pace or incline, but my heart rate still inched upward as I got warmer and warmer.  Eventually, I had to slow down even further to keep my HR at or below 140.  I was going to make some benchmark notations for comparison later, but I forgot.  I'd like to do the same thing each week -- on Mondays -- and compare.

I finished up the previous week with not much of a calorie deficit and, as expected, didn't see any change in my body metrics.  Still at 17% BF and weighing somewhere around 146.  That's okay.  I feel like I've got my diet and exercise regimen under control.  My bane is the late night hungries.