A long, slow run.

My challenge recently has been to allow myself to run slowly.

Much to my surprise, this has not been as easy as it seems. I use a heart rate monitor in all my runs as my pacing device, and it just seems a more natural pace for me to run at a HR average of about 150-155.

I've been repeatedly coached to do long, slow runs, and what this means finally came through to me in my recent physical. My physician--himself a marathon runner--told me that for him, with a similar Max HR as mine, slow means a heart rate of about 135 bpm.

So this weekend I was determined to run a couple of hours within a range of a few points of that pace.

Mostly I was successful, except that the trail I decided to run was Doudy Draw, across Highway 93 to the Greenbelt Plateau and the Community Ditch extension to the east. This area has a bit of terrain, and on the uphill sections my HR went into the 160's for about ten minutes.

I did have to watch my monitor closely, however, because on flat stretches my natural tendency was still to speed up. I several times found myself having to focus on easing up. But I know now what the pace is, and look forward to more such runs.

It was a beautiful day for running, with cool temperature and a light mist. Beginning at 8 o'clock the only other folks I saw were a couple of dog-walkers. On the trail alone, I enjoyed the morning of quiet, the grasses fragrant, the wildflowers sparkling.

Another day in paradise.