If A Tree Falls in the Woods

21.42M, 2:44:47 (including 46 seconds spent on two breaks),7:41 pace, Max HR = 153, Avg HR = 136, 1% Z4, 55% Z3, 43% Z2

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If I run an extra mile and a half but forget to turn on the watch in the middle of the run, did I really run those miles?

That's what happened today. I stopped my watch for a 30 second water break at the Sabine bridge and forgot to turn it on until about 1.5 miles later. Motionbased did a straight-line approximation of my distance and time, so it's relatively accurate and conservative since it doesn't pick up any turns. But my watch doesn't make those calculations on a real-time basis. So I ran until my watch said 20 miles, not knowing how much I over-ran, but knowing it wouldn't be an "official" 20 unless the watch said so.

This was a great run for me. My last 11 miles were run at a sub-seven pace, and my heart rate never got above zone 3. I averaged 136 BPM, and the sum of my breaks over the entire run was less than a minute. I feel pretty certain that I could have run the entire 20 miles at a sub-seven pace. As a point of reference, my goal marathon pace is 6:52.

It's nice to be "in the zone", but it's not hard for me to forget the time's I've been on the flip side of the coin. So I'll just appreciate the situation and hope it continues. And I'll also give credit to the weather which averaged 61 degrees with 80% humidity. It was cold enough for me to run with gloves until the final 3 miles. As I've mentioned before, my hands get really cold while running, and I've been know to run without a shirt but with gloves.

1) I ran mile two through seven with Jack and Diana. (Avg 8:35 through 7) Diana is just off of a women's overall victory in the 10M Warm Up Series Race. I haven't seen her in a few months, and she's looking like she's in top form. I'm pretty sure she will soar to great heights at the California International Marathon (CIM) on Dec 7,2008.
2) Afterwards I tried my best to catch up to Alejandro and Daniel at the front of the Tornado pack. I ran a 6:48 pace for a mile and a half to catch up.
3) Then I forgot to set my watch for the fastest 1.5M of the day. I know this because I tried to keep up with Daniel who was reeling off something in the low sixes.
4) I ran back to mile 0 at the park and did two more laps to make the watch read 20.
5) I wore a new pair of shorts today (with a zipper on the side) which I'll use for the marathon. The zipper gives easy access as opposed to my "famous" orange shorts with the zipper in the back. I can never get to that pocket unless I slow down or stop.
6) I also tried a new skin-tight Zoot top with a zipper in the front for ventilation. It also has two pockets for gels. It felt constricting at first, but I liked the fact that it didn't flop around on me like running singlets tend to do. I hope to run with this shirt as well.
7) With a plethora of pockets, I practiced my in-run fueling today by popping shot blocks every once in a while.
8) I wonder if the heart rate monitor was accurate today, given my low readings. It would be great if I could trust it. In the car before the run it read as low as 45 BPM for my resting rate. I know my heart goes slower when I'm sleeping, but I've never seen it this low while I was awake.