Run · Monday, 7 September 2026 · Week 3, Durability Base
Back holds up through an easy five in the wind
29 weeks to MDS
Five miles, done as planned, with the back giving no trouble this time. Ran well, no issues with back, as the note says. Warm air and a stiff wind for most of it.
Average heart rate sat two under the cap, though a third of the run was spent above it, more than that average alone would suggest. Pace and heart rate both crept up slightly from first mile to last, nothing dramatic. I'll keep an eye on how the back holds over the next few sessions before reading too much into one clean run.
From my training journal
“Ran well no issues with back”
Easy effort
- Distance
- 5 mi
- 8.1 km
- Moving time
- 1h 06m
- started 15:29
- Average pace
- 13:07
- per mile
- Heart rate
- 124
- average · max 142
- Climb
- 322 ft
- 98 m
- Conditions
- 20°C
- 55% humidity · wind 20 km/h
Planned easy run, full distance.
Heart rate against my cap
My easy running has a heart rate ceiling of 126 bpm. It keeps the effort aerobic while my legs, tendons and joints catch up with the mileage. A run counts as over the cap when the average is more than 2 beats over it, or more than a fifth of the time sits above it.
Over the cap. Average 124 bpm, with 20% of the run above 126. The fix is to slow down, walk the steeper bits if I need to, and let it settle.
Mile by mile
| Mile | Pace | Avg HR | Climb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 13:13 | 119 | 121 ft |
| 2 | 12:27 | 123 | 26 ft |
| 3 | 14:20 | 128 | 128 ft |
| 4 | 13:01 | 126 | 46 ft |
| 5 | 12:55 | 123 | 13 ft |
Heart rate in orange is above the 126 bpm cap.
Figures from my watch via Intervals.icu, read by the Ultra Event Training app. Heart rate from a watch is a proxy for effort, not a lab measure. The efficiency figures compare speed per heartbeat early and late in a run with a hill correction; they show what changed, not the cause.