Two Long Runs

This weekend, global warming showed itself in a big way, and I got myself outside to enjoy it.  A big part of blogging for me is about taking pictures when I run, and then having a place to put them.  But when I'm forced inside for weeks at a time because it's too cold to run outside, I have no interesting pictures to show, and therefore very little interest in blogging.

Thursday 6.5 miles on the Greenway. This one was not photo worthy because it was mostly at night.  Downside of the run were the two bathroom stops.  Upside of the run was the speed for the back half of the run.  I was feeling so lousy anyways, I decided to forget about the heart rate and have fun with it.

Saturday 8.5 miles on the Greenway and Franklin-Marshal loop along the Mississippi River. I paced myself really well for this run, which had been my main goal.  I needed the pacing because I had two friends coming to Zumba afterwards and I badly needed to be able to handle the class. The sun was out for most of this run.  All of the runners came out to enjoy it.  I had lots of company on the river trails, but not as much on the Greenway.

Monday: 10.5 Miles on the Cedar Lake Trail.  I did not pace myself as well on this run, but I had a boatload of fun nonetheless.  I started from the downtown gym, and got the Loring Greenway and Loring Park out of the way first.  I'm not sure why I hate running through those places, maybe because the paths do not go in a straight line?  The Cedar Lake Trail was about how I remembered it, although I went further than I'd gone before.  The industrial section at the start of St Louis Park is never any fun.  Turns out, there's a community center with amenities about where I needed to turn around, so that made things a bit better at least.  I tried to spin after this run, but it was useless.  I got off the bike early and went in search of food instead.

Heart Rate: Interesting point about all of these runs is that I can't see my heart rate monitor when I'm dressed for winter running.  (The watch is strapped onto my wrist under my shirt sleeves and jacket.)  As a result, I tried to 'pace' based on how I was feeling.  Saturday morning was all about going easy and conserving energy, so the heart rate is relatively smooth.  Monday afternoon, I was having a lot of fun towards the end of the run so I went a bit faster but took more walk breaks.  The heart rate is kind of all over the place, which is about how I was feeling.