18 at 140 again

Today I repeated last week's route although the weather was far more pleasant. Initially it was cold but quickly the sun rose well above the horizon and I was plenty warm enough. On ascents I kept my heart rate below 140bpm and on descents I was very careful with gait.

Even though I set off slightly aware of both knees I didn't get any twinges or discomfort until I walked a little bit near home. Certainly at the 8km ascent where I noted a little soreness last week the knees were OK. On descents I  felt more confident too; thinking of raising my cadence, leaning forwards and lifting my feet quickly.

The pace was much the same as last week with a similar pattern of splits. The splits show a good maintenance of pace, bearing in mind that the terrain is quite varied on this run. Looking back, on my longer runs last year, even though the pace was faster I wasn't maintaining it. To an extent that shows that I wasn't strong enough for that pace. It's also clear that I wasn't doing long slow runs, I was working close to what might be called race pace; as fast as I could go! Hopefully this slower approach will give a sustainable training effect without injury.

The spiders in Limb Valley had been busy overnight