Sunday long run - 30km

Tough conditions today. Mild to moderate north-westerly (aka. 'Bushfire' winds) and a hot 26 degrees Celcius (when I got home anyway), coupled with the fact that I raced yesterday led to a recipe for pain. I went out quite quickly, hitting the first few kilometres in low 3:40's, high 3:30's before telling myself 'this is ridiculous, it's meant to be a long run - not a time trial!' From about 5km onwards I constantly made a conscious effort to reduce the pace, as every time I looked at my heart rate it was too high, sitting around 155-158 beats per minute. Effort-wise, it certainly didn't feel like this. Nevertheless, the last 4 or 5km were really tough, as I became extremely thirsty. My heart rate started sitting in the low 160's, and it was at this point when I decided against a fast last kilometre. To my surprise, despite the weather, tired legs, and general malaise, I got the run out in 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 4 seconds - about 40 seconds slower than last week. Average pace of 3:44 min/km, with the heart rate sitting at 155 beats per minute. All in all, happy with the pace (actually, more surprised than anything else). Absolutely saturated now, and I haven't even jumped in the water yet. Still annoyed that I lost 60 minutes of sleep last night!