Today’s stats look a little weird because today’s run was a little weird.
The Garmin Forerunner 255 has a “Daily Suggested Workout” feature you can toggle on, and it does just what it says–it gives you a suggested workout, taking into account your current condition/recovery state and the like.
I decided instead of my usual 10K to do whatever it suggested. It suggested this:
- 4x 8-minute runs, 6:00 min/km pace
- 4x 3-minute recovery segments, 8:00 min/km pace
- 1x 10-minute cooldown run, 7:00 min/km pace1Note: The recovery and cooldown paces may be slightly off because my mind was sufficiently traumatized by them, as will be explained below.
All of the above are at paces below what I normally run at. As an example, my Friday 10K run had an average pace of 5:41/km, so stepping that down to 6:00/km was surprisingly difficult. The watch constantly told me I was going too fast. It took most of the first segment to finally find something in the acceptable range.
For the 3-minute segments, I had to adopt a weird, very brisk walking pace, because any kind of running was too fast. For the cooldown at the end, I was able to run. In fact, I had to run, but only just barely. I felt like a horse trotting down the trail, but this was probably where the watch yelled at me the least.
You get a performance score at the end and it’s based on not how fast you move, but how much time you spent in the range for each segment. I got a 75/100, which is considered Good.
For the actual being outdoors part, the weather was fine–cloudy, but calm. Because it’s a holiday the trail was packed full of people, dogs and bikes, but everyone was well-behaved.
The tendons around my knees were straining a bit for the start, but felt fine after warming up. I think they’ll be okay, but may ice them a bit to keep down any potential swelling. There’s no pain, just some stiffness.
Tomorrow I would not normally run, but I’ll see what the daily suggested workout is and figure out if I want to do it or not.
Overall, it was a strange experience. My BPM was slightly higher than Friday at 154, but I think that was actually stress in trying to stay within the range of each segment. Physically, the run was no big deal, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to use my brain so much.
I’m counting this as a 10K run because it was close enough, plus I walked to and from the river trail. Also, I get to make the rules here!
Stats:
Run 770 Average pace: 6:27/km Location: Brunette River trail Start: 9:50 a.m. Distance: 9.48 km Time: 1:01:11 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 7ºC Humidity: 97% Wind: low BPM: 154 Weight: 164.6 Total distance to date: 5735 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (407 km)
