More Slow Running

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So yesterday I was talking a little bit about slow running. I can not overstate how little of this I've ever done in my life. As a point of fact I should not refer to it as slow running but as low heart rate running.
From the beginning I've pushed myself to run faster. Always faster.
In 1984 my friend Rob Hanke talked me into entering the Sri Chin Moy triathlon. Thus began my running life.
My first run was a 3 mile effort. I ran it as fast as I could. I recorded my time (19:32) and ran the same course for months, always working to go faster. I got faster.
It's 23 years later and while I know better, while I would never allow the athletes I coach to go down that path, running hard is a tough habit to break.
So with the "proper" use of a heart rate monitor and a firm desire to make positive changes I set out to truly embrace the slow burn. The relaxed run.
In the past four months I had done only three runs that lasted more than an hour and each one saw me in the penalty box for a week after - unable to run. Either the knees, Achilles or hamstring would be too damaged to consider putting on the sneakers. That did not bode well for running a IM.
On Feb 5th I decided I would see how it felt to really back off the pace - to run in lower zone 2 as Peter Reid had intended me to do all those years ago.
That meant keeping the heart rate under 145. I went an hour ten and felt great the whole time. My average heart rate for the run was 136.
I really have to say, I was honestly shocked at what a different feeling it was to run and not be uncomfortable. And it was amazing how good I felt after. My legs just didn't have the beat up feeling they would always have after a run of that duration.
It felt like I'd cheated.
Now two weeks later it still feels good.
Today I repeated the same run. I ran it a minute faster and my average heart rate was 128. I find that interesting.