Putting some flexibility into my training plan

After running on the treadmill Monday and Tuesday at work and seeing how much easier it is to maintain HR without battling heat and hills, I ran the golf course from Rico's Thursday evening. I gave myself an extra 5 beats to try and have a nice recovery run at 142 beats instead of the 137 I should've been running. Well 142 turned into 145 and then up a little but I managed to keep it around 142 for the most part. I ran right at 6 miles; AHR 135 MHR 148

For my long run this morning, I headed to Huntsville State Park once again to tackle more hills. My target rate for this long run was 70-75% effort. I gave myself extra beats again but didn't define them before I started my run. First incline my HR got up to 152 so I tried to keep it at 150 max. That worked for awhile until I got to the steep incline on the outer loop. I ran it moderately and my rate got a little over 160. 160 became my new target after that. My reasoning behind the increases was to allow me to get in some consistent running on inclines; I find I have to walk at least a portion of every major incline if I stay at a 75% max HR. That sorta negates the reason for running hills if I can't run up the inclines. A month ago I would've run as hard as I could up the inclines to try and get a higher max HR; I think I'm running smarter these days.

I ended up buying an annual pass to HSP as it seems I'm there every weekend these days. With the Boston 1/2 in mid October, I'll probably continue visiting HSP after I complete Parkersburg next month.