I could get used to this

Today's run: Recovery run of 6 miles at 9:30 pace, including 6x100m strides

At 5:30am, the sun is coming up and birds start chirping as if this is a surprsing event. What is suprising is that I start to wake up with them, and in about an hour I'll get up, have a nibble, stretch, apply sunscreen, put on my gear and go out for my morning run at around 7:30am. After my run, I stretch while looking out over the ocean, admiring West Maui, Lanai, Molokini and Kahoolawe. I use the outdoor (cold) shower to lower my body temperature, then retire to the deck to ice my knees, drink some iced Gatorade, and write this blog entry.

Yeah, I could get used to this.

• • •

The run itself was good. Beautiful scenery, and I managed to keep to the shade for half the run.

I tried to keep my heart rate in check, even with the hills and heat. I did this in no small part by padding my heart rate zone by 12 bpm, and also by going slow. I mostly thought about tomorrow's run: a 12 miler with 7 miles of Lactate Threshold (LT) pace (7:05/mile).

First: I tend to think this is an important run. I missed the last LT run when I was resting my left knee, so it has been a while since the 5 miles of LT I did on the Embarcadero with great results. This is the longest LT run in the schedule, and this week of training, 8 weeks out from the marathon, is the heaviest. So I'm disinclined to blow it off.

Trouble is, I don't think I can hit the pace without sending my heart rate through the roof. With the exception of the 14 miler to Lahaina on Sunday, all (3) of my other runs here have been slower than usual, with a much higher heart rate.

So the question becomes: do I go by heart rate, or by pace? I could set a range on my heart rate monitor from, say, 167 to 182, and make sure I stay within it. I'm pretty sure that would yield a strong workout. I guess the question is: is heart rate as good a proxy for the Lactate Threshold as is pace?