I don't get it

I'm kind of a stats junky, I just like numbers. I find different correlations interesting. I don't keep track of a lot of stats for my runs though, mostly because I'm too unorganized/lazy to do that. Mostly I just keep track of the distance I run, the time, and my average heart rate. I keep track of it all on RunningAhead.com, it is an excellent site. There are a lot of other fields that I don't worry about too much, but it would be interesting to see the correlation if I took the time to input that data for every run.

On Saturday afternoon I ran 2 miles on the treadmill at 6 miles per hour with an incline of 1 like I normally do. The run felt quite a bit harder than the last couple and my average heart rate was 163. I checked it a few times during the run and it was up close to 180. When I tried to find my max heart rate last year I came up with 184 so 180 was really up there.

Tonight I ran 2.25 miles, again at 6 MPH with an incline of 1. Except tonight I felt pretty good and kicked it up to 8 MPH for another quarter mile. My average heart rate this time was only 156. I didn't check it too often during the run though and I never really saw it higher than that.

So even though I ran farther and faster my heart rate was higher. I find that pretty interesting. Makes it easy to see why heart rate training is becoming more and more popular.

I'm trying to figure out what all went into the difference and I can't really think of anything special. Actually I would have bet that tonights run would have been "harder". Friday night was my Christmas party for work, but I didn't have as much "fun" as I did last year. I was home around 11 and I only had about 6 beers (party started at 6 so that's not as bad as it sounds). I didn't have anything going on Saturday and I just woke up around 9:30 and took a nap for about and hour or so after that (sometime around 11 I think). Then I went for my run around 2:30.

Last night I was up until about 3:30 playing Final Fantasy III on my DS (I have got to quit doing that). Went to work at 8 and skipped lunch. In the afternoon my stomach was hurting and I just felt kind of crappy. Actually it's kind of weird, that actually happens quite a bit when I hardly sleep and don't eat. I came home, ate and took a "nap" for about 3 hours. When I got up I still kind of felt like crap but I went for my run anyway. And then I had a real good run. I don't get it.