Juneathon day 8 - running slower than I ever thought possible

I mentioned a couple of posts back that I was experimenting with using the heart rate monitor to moderate my runs. With that in mind I've just read the supposedly definitive guide to the subject (if you had told me six months ago I would be buying and reading books like this I would have laughed in your face).

By John L Parker Jr - father of Ray Parker Jr (possibly...)

Anyway, the author suggests that most people run their slow runs too fast and their fast runs too slow. His  system boils down to alternating fast and slow runs, and the pace should entirely be governed by your heart rate. On slow runs your heart rate should never go above 70% of your maximum, and on fast runs you should be aiming for consistently above 85% of your max (I've simplified it a lot but that's the gist).

Slow runs are where the fat burning happens - I'm all about the fat burning - and also how you build up endurance over longer distances. So, today I went for a long, slow run. And boy when I say slow do I mean slow. To keep my heart rate below 70% of max meant 'running' at an insanely slow pace, for most of the run a full 2 minutes per kilometre slower than I usually run. The outward leg of my run is very, very slightly uphill and during that part I had to walk several times to keep my heart rate down. For the rest of it I was running at a pace which can barely be called running.

At one point a father with a child on his shoulders, another in a buggy and two massive bags of shopping passed me. Old ladies with walking sticks passed me. Couples out for a romantic Saturday afternoon stroll passed me. Basically everyone passed me as I shuffled along at a snail's pace. Hell, snails were passing me. To be fair, John L Parker did warn that this would happen. The idea is that over time your endurance and general fitness improve and so does your pace, so you find you can cover longer distances at a faster pace but while still keeping your heart rate below 70%. That day cannot come soon enough in my book.

Today's run actually represents two personal bests, for duration and distance, but I don't feel very triumphant because the pace was so slow. On the plus side I did spend at least an hour in the fat burning zone so I feel fairly positive about the prospect of pizza and home-made ice cream for dinner this evening (vanilla and pralines - nom). As ever it's swings and roundabouts.

Day 8 12.69k in 1.40.43
Runningfree stats