The benefits of soft surface long runs...

Following the policy of sleeping in Monday mornings, got out at about 6:10pm on a clear Monday evening. My program called for 14k in 1 hour 10 min, which struck me as a little odd, as it's usually 16k, and 5 min per km is my 'easy' run pace.

Hadn't felt great during the day, so made the call to run according to how I felt rather than to any set pace, and ignore the watch as much as I could.

Ran the usual route of east along Victoria Road to the Bay Run, looping around and back via the Iron Cove and Gladesville Bridges. Once I got going I actually felt pretty good, with none of the usual impact soreness I would get after a STaR of the same length I ran on Sunday, and was soon rolling along, feeling light on my feet and very efficient. Saw 26 miles with the Run Clubbers as I came into King Georges Oval at Rozelle.

Snuck a look at the watch coming on to the Iron Cove and was a little surprised to see the pace at 4:21 per km. Decided to keep the pressure on, and had to build a little loop in to ensure I didn't have to do a heap of loops around home to make up time.

Managed 16.02 km in 1h10m for 4:22 per km pace, average HR 136. It was a little hard through Drummoyne, but I thought I held up pretty well over the long climb to the peak of Gladesville Bridge.

Doubtless I'll hear from SW telling me I should have taken it easy, and I'll probably pay dearly for it tomorrow. Oh well.

Attached is an elevation and heart rate profile.