Running benchmark comparison

I've done two comparable running benchmarks now with the HRM on, the first on 21/12/07 consisting of 45 min run at 8.5kmph at 1% incline on the treadmill. The second was a 55 min run at 8.6kmph and 1% incline on the treadmill (W1D7 of the JD red plan). Just got around to comparing the HR outputs from the two runs and got the following:

	21/12/07	03/01/08	07/01/08	12/01/08
10m	168	169	161	153
15m	169		165
20m	171		157
25m	172		166
30m	175		172
35m	177		178
40m	179		173
45m	180		181

One or two quick conclusions...

• Results are pretty meaningless as is...would really need more "benchmark runs" and the method of picking HR at arbitrary times is pretty arbitrary in itself...it doesn't for instance take into account spikes or troughs in HR at the measurement time. Still, performing the test on the treadmill is supposed to help prevent such anomalies so we'll just bear with it.
• I've also added other workouts where the warmup consists of similar paces.
• From the two benchmarks, it seems that there's a definite improvement at most of the data points...HR is a few beats lower in six out of eight of the measured times. On average, the later measurements are 4.75bpm lower.
• I think the value of your HR after the first 10 minutes is highly dependent on what your were doing previously (i.e. your starting HR).