10K

Last weekend, our workout schedule had us completing a 10k road race (6.2 miles). There was only one race that we could find in New England, and it was 1 1/2 hours away. So we decided to run our own course - we could run whenever we wanted, and it would be close to home. Chris has been doing some of his weekly runs outside, while I've been on the treadmill for 8 weeks!! I have to run so slow to keep my heart rate down, so I've been sticking to the treadmill, where I can manage the speed and hills. So, I was a little concerned on what it would feel like to be running outside again. The course that we chose had some rolling hills, but nothing steep - and quiet country roads with little traffic. I was excited to run - I was going to wear a heart rate monitor, but I wasn't going to slow my pace to keep my heart rate at a lower level - so I was excited to run 'free'! Chris has the opposite problem of me - he has a hard time getting his heart rate up....
We did a nice easy warm up mile, then we were off! Chris took off ahead of me. He stayed close for a couple miles, then pulled away. Fortunately, he was in my sight, so he could wave when he hit the mile markers (he was wearing a GPS watch that beeped at each mile). The run was fun and I felt I was running pretty smoothly for the first 3 miles. The last 3 were more of a struggle, but my pace didn't really fall off too much. The effort to keep my pace up (44-45 steps every 30 seconds) seemed to be greater. The road was curvy the last 3 miles too, so I couldn't see Chris to know where the mile markers were. But we did it! Chris finished in 50 minutes. I finished in 51:30. We were pretty happy with our pace this early in the season. (I'm actually happy with that pace late in the season too!!)
We had the sore legs to prove that we had done a race, so we know that we pushed it pretty good. Chris' average heart rate was 155 (he was in his zone 1 of training!!) Mine was 179 -yowza! I can't see that heart rate during training - it's way above my zone 2. Good thing we can let it fly when we race - else it was going to take me 1:12 to finish that race.

The rest of the weekend, we spent looking for investment property. We're hoping to buy a couple multifamily homes - keep our portfolio diversified. There are some good buys out there - just trying to find the right one - where the tenants won't be too much of a headache.


Next weekend, we are back in New Hampshire!!