Round walk again

I was keen to do just over 25km today before I start a slow taper into the 50km ultra. I haven't been above 25km since last November although there have been a number of runs over 20km. As much as anything I needed mentally to do it. However I was very aware that I mustn't overdo it as my knees are delicate (I think the combination of runs and using them in circuits) and I don't want an injury to develop. So I disciplined myself to monitor my heart rate carefully and stay below 140bpm. A proper long sow run. I left the house very gently, but as I've seen before, the first easy run, especially if it's downhill, set my heart racing. I had hoped to do this and take walk breaks over5 to 6 minutes but I couldn't cope with the thinking, and I would have had to think, as my Garmin 110 doesn't display heart rate and time together. Of course, to limit my heart rate I was walking any obvious ascents anyway.

It does appear though that I achieved my goal for 90% of the time and I can account for a few minutes of the intense activity as 'settling down time'. Even though today was a slow training run it puts me on course to do the 50km in under 6 hours which is a key goal. I certainly could have worked harder and did have more to give when I got home. Moreover the Round Walk 'and a bit' has 600m of ascent and descent. The strange thing is that the run didn't feel especially easy whilst out, or now, a few hours later. Hopefully it won't have been too stressful to my body.