Week 1

Week 1 went to plan finishing with a 15 mile run with my Heart Rate between 80 -85% of my predicted max.  It was quite a warm day and I noticed my pace gradually slowing from a 7:10 min mile to an overall average of 7:45 min mile.  Whenever my out of zone alarm went off I changed my pace which meant slowing on an incline and speeding up on a decline.  Using HR to determine effort has the added advantage of allowing the change of pace which makes the run a bit more interesting.

My last long run before I went to Australia was as the 8 min mile pacer for the London Marathon and towards the end of the race I could feel my IT band tighten up but because I was running at a set pace I couldn't slow down or increase my stride length to loosen it out.

The attached graph is from the 1st Long run of my Marathon programme using Polar Protainer software, the lower red line shows the course profile and the red line towards the top shows my Heart Rate profile.  I use the Polar RS800SD and for anyone interested the Great Outdoors are selling a similar model, the RS400SD at the moment for €299.