Fortunately, my RS800 got back from Polar Canada's service depot yesterday so I was able to get back to my normal running routine. I was definitely impressed with their service, as once shipping times were taken into account they took less than two business days to complete the work. Naturally, I would have rather not have had the problem in the first place but it is good to know that they can get repairs done this quickly.
Either way, the plan called for a 10K run this morning, so I headed out just after 10am. Despite the clear skies, the temperature was below zero and snow that fell yesterday was still on the ground. As such, I wore a long sleeve running shirt, a pair of gloves and a neck warmer to keep myself warm. I did a 1K walk to warm up, and then broke into a run when the watch's auto-lap feature beeped.
I finished the first kilometer a little slow, hitting the mark in 4:48. Kilometers two and three went along similarly, hitting them in 4:46 and 4:47 respectively. By the fourth kilometer, I began to pick up the pace and hit the mark in 4:43. Even at this point, however, my heart rate was still in the 150s which is a lot lower than it usually was so I allowed myself to continue to accelerate a little more.
The fifth through ninth kilometers were all in the low 4:40s to high 4:30s, but my heart rate still remained in the mid-160s. As such, I let myself go faster than usual in the final kilometer - taking 4:28 to reach the finish line. Overall, the 10K running portion took 46:49, for an average pace of about 4:41.
Despite the final push, my heart rate peaked at 173bpm which was still quite comfortable. The cold adds a lot of complexity to running, however it certainly makes it easier to keep the heart rate under control. It does make me wonder how well I could have done had I run the Goodlife Toronto Half Marathon this weekend instead of the Scotiabank Waterfront Half ;)
Given the missed bicycle rides earlier in the week due to weather issues, I replaced the planned 30K in the afternoon with a 50K ride. While it did warm up a little in the afternoon, it was still below 3C so it was still pretty chilly. Naturally, this is more of a concern on the bike than it is on foot, as the continuous ~30km/h wind tends to make for a nasty windchill. Regardless, I had already missed significant mileage on the bike this week so I was determined to make it up one way or the other.
Either way, I put on my cycling shorts, a long sleeve running shirt and a cycling jersey on top and headed out. Once I got going, the temperature wasn't too bad as the heat generated by my body did a decent job of keeping me comfortable. The only thing that ended up becoming a problem was keeping my feet warm, as they don't do a lot of work on the bike so the cold air does get to them. It didn't really become too much of a problem, however it is evident that I need to look into getting a set of windproof booties to put over top of my cycling shoes.
As for the ride itself, I wasn't able to push as hard as I would have liked as the legs were still a little tired from the run a couple of hours before. Either way, I managed to average about 29km/h for most of the laps around the subdivision. Around 2:30, however, the school traffic started building up again so fighting my way through all of the cars slowed a couple of laps down to the 27km/h range. Overall, I managed to average about 28.1km/h including the warm-up and cool-down segments, finishing 50.65km in 1:48:07.
Tomorrow morning has another 10K run scheduled, with an 11K walk in the afternoon. I might try and replace that walk with another ~30K cycle to make up for lost mileage but I'll have to see how things feel. Friday I'll be looking at doing another half-century, and possibly more if everything feels good so I can't push too hard tomorrow. Fortunately, the weather over the next couple of days looks like it's going to be near perfect so hopefully that means that I can stick to the plan better than I have for the first half of the week.
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