Now that even Simpy is talking about Maffetone with a straight face, I put on my heart rate monitor and tried to stay in an easy aerobic zone today - about 70-75% of HRmax using the heart rate reserve method. Boy, is that hard to do! I know that everyone always finds it hard to go that slowly when they first try this, but my problem was staying in the range in our hilly terrain. It was similar to the challenge of maintaining a constant wattage on a bike as you go up and down. It's almost impossible to go up a hill without pushing beyond the range, and it's hard work to get up to the right range on the downhill when you're thinking you're in "easy" mode. Interestingly, my average pace for the run was only a little slower than usual even though it felt like less work.
Today's other focus was running form - good posture, stronger push-off, rear foot up higher, 2" shorter (as per the Carbons' coach). The Sense Ultras are good for that.
Other than the usual bizarre heel pain, I felt good; I'm recovering gradually.
The long stop around the 8 km mark was an attempted goat rescue. Thanks to the Harper Government's "Economic Action Plan", as advertised on a huge wooden sign nearby, a half-kilometer stretch of gravel road near our place has had its ditches redone. A little goat was on the road, and I wasn't sure what her boundaries were supposed to be so I tried to herd her back into the field with her other goat, donkey and horse friends. She seemed to be having trouble getting up the side of the new ditch into her field.
I went into the property to knock on the door and look in the back yard for people who might not want their goat on the road. No one was home. After a few minutes of unsuccessful searching, I came back down the driveway. The escaped goat was now inside the fence happily munching grass with the other animals. She looked at me and smirked. I ran the rest of the way home.