PR'd the route and PR'd the Heartrate!

Tonight's Tuesday group run started in 99 degrees. It didn't feel that hot. The heat index was less than the temp.... must be a dry heat. The group took off for the 7.25 miles with 2 new additions, Matt's wife Lindsay (they're training for a Sprint triathlon this weekend) and Adam (a Y regular new to our running group).

My plan was 4 pickups of 4.5 minutes at heart rate zone 4 followed by 1.5 minutes easy. All this started at 10 minutes into the route. Helene always does my pickups with me because she's training for Hood to Coast (197 mile relay, 24 hours, 12 runners... do the math!). Jason, Todd and Bryon took off at their warp speed and very soon Patty and Adam has left me with the girls. Actually, not a bad place to be ;-). Soon, Lindsay dropped us as Helene and I got separated by traffic. About halfway into the 2nd PU we caught Lindsay and Adam. Helene is usually very strong and ahead of me but tonight her foot and a host of other issues wern't going her way. It was hot and magnified problems. At the end of the run we took the car to get her. Knowing when to stop is so important; I abandoned last week with knee soreness, I understand.

I'm not sure what I had going on but I cooked through all 4 of my pick-ups and saw Patty and Matt at the water stop. We regrouped and 4 of us left the water stop together but Matt and Patty took off again and Lindsay dropped off for her home and a shorter run. M&P were 1 minute ahead (I timed them) and in my sites. So, I shifted gears, I've got 2 miles to reel them in if I can. By 1 mile to go I had reeled in Matt and my HR was cooking in Z4... this is supposed to be a Z2 run. But, hey, I feel good and my rabbit is still out there. Closing this gap was happening but happening VERY slowly.

Matt stayed with me and we compared HRs. He was at 185 and I was at 170 and he finally had to drop off. Matt normally leaves me and I can normally never catch Patty. But Patty's gap is closing. I shift gears again with about 3/4 miles to go. The HR hits 183 but I can hold it there and I'm making a hell of a lot of noise. She's not going to make it easy with a 1/4 to go I had to hang on to that pace for a lot longer. With 2 feet to go to the stop sign I tagged her. She was tickled because she heard me coming and knew what it was going to take for me to get her. I had to turn around and run another couple of blocks to get the HR back down to something reasonable. I was "done".

Tonight, Jason and I both ended up with a personal record on the route. He was 44 minutes (6:07/mile) and I was 58 minutes (8/mile) and I hit the highest HR I've ever recorded at 183. No wonder I feel kinda tired right now. But I'm excited at the progress. Tomorrow morning I'm doing my Wednesday brick since I have to work tomorrow night. 32 miles riding followed by 45 minutes running. Good thing I had a lot of pasta at Avanti tonight.

Today: Swim 3400m, bike 2 miles (to swim), run 7.25. Woooo-hooooo, onward!