December 8th, 2008
I wasn’t feeling like doing anything strenuous today, the windchill was lower 20s and I was cold inside the house, which makes it even harder to get your ass outside. I thought about doing it tomorrow – it’ll be 10 degrees warmer, but there’s some wind with that, so between the two, the cold day won. I ended up sticking my running clothes in the dryer for a couple minutes to warm them up.
I was all excited to use my HR strap because I wanted to make sure I was in the right zone with these new faster paces. Much to my chagrin, as soon as I started the tempo, the HR got wonky, so I spent the first half mile fussing with my jacket, the strap and my MP3 player that unclipped itself while I was busy rearranging. Finally I gave up. It did seem to get better after I finished the tempo portion and messed around with it some more. Might have been too loose.
Anyway, ’twas a good 7 w/3-mile tempo, avg. tempo pace 7:30. Splits were 7:35 (thanks to HR fussing), 7:29 & 7:26. No complaints.
Posted in Running
That’s great that you got your run in!
I wanted to run in the cold today, but didn’t have the time to fit it in.
Noone can ever say that you aren’t dedicated. I’m hating the cold more and more now.. Good for you for not letting mother nature get the best of you!
I also ran in the cold, and found out I need warmer clothes. 20* is not bad once you get moving, but the breeze is a killer!
One more ?, what determines your daily mileage? Obviously one longer run a week, one, tempo and probably a speed run, but the “tweeners” is what I’m wondering about?
HR straps like you to perspire a bit, for good skin contact. I’ve had problems when it’s cold. Rubbing the contact surface with a licked finger can work wonders. I like the dryer technique, but then we California wimps don’t know much about proper cold.
On cold weather running… This is the first year where I have every piece of clothing a runner could need (a jacket for cold, another for rain, 2 pairs of thicker tights, some half-zips, UA mocks, gloves hat and fleece headband). It really does make all the difference. Still amazes me how little you end up wearing with today’s tech fabrics.
Heidi, daily mileage is dependent on how many miles you can handle and/or enjoy weekly. There are some rules, like the long run isn’t supposed to be more than 30% of weekly mileage (something like that, correct me if someone knows better) and speedwork also has some percentage rule, too. Other than that, I split the leftover mileage pretty evenly. When training for a Full, it’s great to have a mid-week mid-long run which means shorter runs on those leftover mileage days.
A helpful thing you can do is check out different running plans online and in books to see how they do it. Go to the Higdon site and look at his plans, check out the ones at Runners World and do a search for Glover’s plans (if you don’t have the book, Competitive Runner’s Handbook…a must have, btw).
Jim, I also discovered Aloe gel works well to help the contacts, but I accidentally threw it out a few months ago so I gotta get more.
Oh, apropos of nothing, there were some nice placards on view on Sunday. I might not have remembered the name right, but there was one, fixed to a hedge, said “Marjorie, will you…” and then, 50 yards further on. “Marry me?”. Cute. It later occurred to me, that amongst 6000 marathoners, there might have been several Marjories who later had awkward conversations with their boyfriends.
Aw, how romantic is that? Funny about the potential for Marjorie confusion.