I've been trying to do Zone 2 training somewhat unsuccessfully for a few months now.
I don't always feel good enough to run as often as I'd like and it's likely that my 1-2 runs a week (rather than 4-5) are really slowing down my progress.
Still, sometimes it goes okay.
And sometimes, like this morning, my heart rate starts high and starts high for ages.
It's demoralising when I feel like I'm doing the right things and my heart rate, that I want to be between 117-136 is consistently in the 140's and 150's.
This morning I was jogging incredibly slowly, diligently taking tiny steps and felt miserable.
And I had to remind myself to look up. To look around. To notice where I was.
I was at the Bay. And it is beautiful 😍
I was able to jog on flat paths and smile at strangers and watch puppies running and playing at the dog beach.
And that's when I remembered that I'm putting way too much emphasis on the numbers on my watch.
I'm looking at those numbers and feeling like a failure. And I feel like I'm failing at too many things right now to handle failing at this too.
So I did what any sane person would do: I decided to let it go.
I decided that I would ignore what my watch was saying my heart rate was. I would stop worrying so much about trying to get this whole 'Zone 2 thing' right. And I've just switched to running easy, because running easy feels good.
And guess what happened?
Just a few minutes later I checked my watch to see how much time I had left before Brad was due back from him run and to my utter surprise, I noticed that my heart rate has dropped to 113.
That, my friends, is just BELOW Zone 2. So I smiled. And ran a tiny bit faster. And enjoyed my run a whole lot more. And I realised (or rather, I remembered yet again) that sometimes we have to give up the worry and stop trying so damn hard and do what we know is supposed to work.
Because, eventually, it probably will.
The visual the explains this story perfectly.