My long run this week went slightly different to normal but it worked and I actually think it was useful. When I went to set up my long run to start I noticed it wasn’t there meaning I hadn’t synched with my watch from my Training Peaks properly and to fix it I needed to have my computer, this wasn’t going to work as I had already driven to my start point and didn’t want to waste the time going back especially with the weather being on and off.
I decided that I would just set off on the run and manually keep myself in the power zones, but yet again with my luck it wasn’t showing my power zones only my heart rate and pacing along with other useless things to pace my run.
I decided as I had already began to run that I would try to pace off of both how I felt and the average pace I feel I usually sit around when I’m in the correct power zone. It was strange not feeling the vibrations of my watch telling me if I’m in or out of zone so I knew I would either nail the run or over or under run the power. But there was nothing I could do so I just kept going and kept trying to run at the pace I so often run at.
I think with the consistency through my runs my body has a feel of what each zone feels like, especially the Level II as it’s where most of my running time is spent. I enjoyed the run, it changed it up slightly and made me think less about being in the perfect zone.
When finishing the run I could tell I would be close as with the distance was at about what I normally run.
I let Ray know of the situation in the comments of my run just in case it was way off but to my surprise I got a reply with spending 1:15hr in zone of the 1:30hr, and with there being faster paced runs at the end I knew that this was better than I expected by far.
It showed me that I naturally know by feel on what pace and zone my body is running at and that this is the correct zone for me to be in for the consistency.
– Jessica Bray