I had a very interesting problem yesterday - one that I don’t think I’ve seen before. I was out for a five mile recovery run. I have my Garmin programmed to chirp me if my heart rate leaves “Zone 2″ (65% to 75% of max heart rate) when on a recovery workout. Normally, when I hear the chirp, I’ll slow down and I’ll hear another chirp letting me know my heart rate has dropped back into the desired range. Well, yesterday I had trouble with that second chirp.

The run started out fine. Mile 1 in 9:45 in the target heart range. Then a chirp. I slowed down. Chirp? Where are you? I slowed down more. Listening… I finally dropped to a walk. Ah there it was. Back into my target zone. Time to pick it up a little again. Huh? Chirp? What the?

Well, you get the idea. This was a tough “run”. I put “run” in quotes because at times I had to resort to a brisk walk to keep my heart rate in recovery range. My splits show my struggle: 9:44, 10:17, 10:34, 10:59, 11:17. And my average heart rate over the five miles was still above the target - 77% of max. Wow. Tough day. Oh well - every run can’t be the best one I’ve ever run.

Oh - after several weeks of absenteeism - I finally made it to the gym. It actually felt good to get in a good stretch and some planks and crunches.

Today I’ll be out for a nine mile GA run. I’ll keep my fingers crossed!