I Wasn't Listening

This morning I slept in until about 10, which was quite a nice treat. Then Drew and I went for a walk around Union Square and of course ended up buying lots more bars and some other various things. After our afternoon jaunt, we went home, changed clothes and headed out for a run. I'm not quite sure how I convinced him to come with me, but somehow I talked him into it.

When we were walking to the park, there was a group of guys right by the Maine Monument playing music, which led to a brief discussion of me telling Drew about another music group I had heard recently in the subway. After I had told him about the other group, he then admitted that he wasn't really listening to me at all while I was talking. I admit, it wasn't that great of a story, but it always makes me wonder what else he's not listening to!

I had told him before we left the house that today's run wouldn't be fast. I really wanted to concentrate on keeping my heart rate in the 170s as it seems to be a much more comfortable running pace for me with a slightly lower heart rate. He had said that he wanted to run about 4 miles, so I suggested that we run up the West Side until we reached the Reservoir, run around the Reservoir Loop and then back down the West Side again.

The thing about running north first, which is against traffic, is that there is a lot more to see that way. I'm not really sure we saw anything or anyone noteworthy, but it just makes the whole thing more enjoyable. There were a couple moments where we were running a little bit faster than I would have liked for my heart rate, but I really tried to keep it slower. I told Drew that if he wanted to run ahead and go faster he should feel free, but he said that he was doing fine at my slower pace.

Once we reached the reservoir, I really made an effort to keep my heart rate in the 170s. It's a fairly easy conversational pace for me and I wasn't trying to win any awards with my run. Once we got all the way around the Reservoir Loop, Drew looked at his watch and said, "about 17 minutes ... sort-of slow." Geez! I'm fairly certain I said it several times that this would be a slow run. I'm not sure what he was thinking that meant (or maybe he just wasn't listening again!).

We ended up running 3.9 miles in just under 40 minutes, so it really wasn't that slow of a run overall. It's nice to know that I can still keep about a 10 minute mile pace even with a slower heart rate, which I think would help me be able to run for longer stretches. I think that's my strategy for the 10K I have on December 6 ... to keep my heart rate in the 170s and just take my time. I'm really just doing this as motivation to keep running and I don't think the 6 miles will be a problem no matter what, which is really nice to know!

Time: 39:48
Distance: 3.90 miles
Pace: 10:12/mile
Calories: 508
Maximum HR: 183
Average HR: 172