All right! Week two is in the bag, and no smoke or ash was in the air. I'm finding that one of the most challenging aspect of the program so far is keeping my heart rate down. Trying to stay in my heart rate zone 2 while still running can be a challenge. I know part of this is my conditioning (or lack thereof) but I also can blame the heat here in Las Vegas. I was able to go farther and faster on my long run in week 2 while staying in HRZ 2 compared to the previous week. Most of that is probably due to the fact that it was 90 F in week 2 and 100 F in week 1. I'm also noticing the terrain and my breathing pattern seem to have some influence as well.
The plus side to all this is that when running in HRZ 2 it seems like I can go on forever, which is a great feeling. I also found that I look forward to the interval training sections where I can run fast and not have to monitor my heart rate. Before I started this I thought those would be the parts that I dreaded. Go figure.
Not much scenery here on the north end of Las Vegas, but I did have a decent view at the top of my hill run.
