Hello, Endorphins

One reason I love running: endorphins. I feel amazing right now. I just ran 5 miles in 90 degree heat (with 55% humidity), and I feel amazing. I love everyone and everything. If my mechanic called and told me my transmission was shot (there is something wrong with my car, it's being looked at), I'd shrug and think to myself, "Well that sucks." And then I'd smile and remark to myself how beautiful the sun looks streaming through the trees (well, it does. I'm looking out of my window right now, and it is such a pretty day!). Not to mention my dark chocolate cherry brownies I have baking right now!

I'm pretty happy with my run. I went to Deep Run Park, which is VERY hilly and pumped out 5 miles in 48:45. That is an average pace of 9:45, which is 12 seconds (per mile) FASTER than my 4 mile run (on flat road) on Thursday morning. See, my pace is already getting faster! I will get you this year, Boston (said in my best Dr. Claw voice). Of course, that was mostly due to my last mile, which was like 8:45 or something like that. I think my mile splits went something like this: 10:30, 9:55, 9:30, 10:05, 8:45. So that last one tells me I should've been running the earlier ones faster. Oops.

Oh, and I have an interesting tidbit that I have to preface with a long explanation. As you all know, I'M SURE, there is an equation to estimate your maximum heart rate. That equation is your age subtracted from 220. Well, my average heart rate tends to hover around 175 during my runs, which is about 90% of my MHR (max heart rate). Which is way too high for a regular run. But it's always like that, and I FEEL fine during and after my run. So I stopped wearing my heart rate monitor because it annoyed me that it was telling me I was overworking myself when I knew I wasn't. Well I was reading an article in Runner's World today, and according to Dr. Jack Daniels (haha, what a great name) there is a wide standard deviation to that formula. So my max heart rate is probably bit higher than 194. Way to go, heart. Way to be able to beat really fast!