An hour of anything that gets you puffing a bit has to be good for you and it's not too long to mess up your day. I try to do zone 2 runs, but I tend to drift into zone 3 for at least some of it. I don't worry about that too much. Sound like you are on the right path and I'm sure you will get quicker over time.

We can't always choose where we live so have to cope with local conditions. We are lucky to not get the extremes of weather here.