At last a proper long run

Ok it's 12 weeks to the Perth Marathon on 5th July. Looking at my old spreadsheets (I'm a statto) I see the last run I did that could be described as long was the Freo HM 7 months ago. Since then I've done a handful of 13k runs and that's it (lots of short ones though). So...maybe I'll be a little underbaked for the Perth mara!

So anyway, this morning I headed out at 6:50am for an 18k run. It was warm. A bit humid too. I set the Virtual Partner on the Garmin to 6:00min/km pace, but soon discovered this was too optimistic. I am a really, really slow starter in the early morning and so the first couple of kms were done in 6:20 pace. After that I had warmed up and moved to a steadyish 6:00 pace with a couple of 5:30s in near the end to get the heart rate up. 

Total time was 1:52, distance 18.4km, HR 141.

I am quite liking the Heart Rate Monitor on the Garmin. The info is quite revealing. For instance, today as it was a LSD (Long Slow Distance) run I knew I had to keep my HR in the aerobic zones of 2 and 3. My average HR was actually 141bpm which gives me an indicator as to how hard I'm pushing myself. For comparison, a fast run (for me) at 5:00min/k pace over 6k my HR was 154.

The Garmin even shows an HR graph on screen which is cool, but I'm not sure of it's usefulness.

To do a 4hr marathon I need to run at 5:40 pace. Right now this seems very unlikely!

My current fitness points more to 6:00 pace and a 4:15 finish. Still, I have plenty of training left to do and after all, I shouldn't wish for too much for a first marathon!

Speaking of Garmin, the strap on my 405 has broke after only 2 weeks use! Admittedly I had been using it as an everday watch too, so it was getting bashed around a bit. My missus couldn't believe I'd be so stupid as to wear a $400 GPS watch continuously, but I thought that was the whole point of the 405? Otherwise I would have got a 305 which is chunkier but has an easier to read screen. Anyway, I fixed the strap by brute forcing the flimsy pin back into place, but I reckon it's been weakened. So...now I'll only wear it for training and races.