20K

Finally a good workout. It got a bit dicey in the middle, but I recovered well and was able to finish strong.

The weather could not have been nicer. 54F (12C) and sunny and only a little breezy (now it is much windier in advance of rain and snow Sunday night). I wore shorts and a T-shirt and enjoyed the warmth.

I started off feeling pretty darn good. The first 500 was more like 600 - my watch did not beep at all in the right spot. It does this sometimes. So I figured I'd just do 19.9km instead, which is what I did :). The first 5K is a gentle downhill, so it was nice and fast. Then I struggled a little from 5K-10K and had some slow 500s. I stopped at 9K to take a gel and have a drink and give myself a pep talk. Apparently it was successful, as I was able to move along a bit faster after that. I felt pretty good until 15K, and then I did tire a bit but was still able to stay strong on the slight uphill home again; my legs were feeling it but they still had something left. Here are my 5K splits (well, 4.9, 9.9, 14.9, and 19.9 on my watch!): 30:30, 1:02:20 (31:50), 1:33:30 (31:10), and 2:05:10 (31:40). Ave HR for the walk was in the upper 140s; my HR monitor was acting up a little so it's hard to know but that's a good approximation. At the end it was in the low-mid 150s.

Garmin data here.