7.5 mile Sunday run

Sunday was my usual easy pace slow run. End of week 1 still, so no more than 85 minutes. I selected another undulating course as you can see from the map above. This run was endurance, so max heart rate 137.

I was amazed at how low my heart rate was for the pace I was running. For the first 3 miles my heart rate was between 124 and 133. I was running to heart rate but still doing about 9 minute miles. The climbs of course raise your heart rate, and I purposely slow down to avoid raising it higher than necessary. This is an easy pace run after all. Because the latter half is all uphill, and pretty steep, I had to slow the pace down so much that the average minute mile fell to 10:15. I decided to run the last 3/4 mile at pace and ended the run at average 9:52 a mile over the 7.5 miles. Average heart rate was exactly 137. It would have been very low 130's apart from fast running at the end.

Average Speed: 6.0 mph
Average Pace: 9.52
Event Distance: 7.5 miles
Heart Rate: 137
Event Time: 01:14:09

Good points:
Low heart rate average whilst running a good pace
Good breathing throughout
Plenty of pace left to run the last mile fast.

Bad points:
Sunday is a slow/easy run, so despite temptation for better average mile I should have kept slow pace throughout and not run the last mile fast!

How to Improve:
Keep the Sunday run at endurance pace throughout!