Posts Tagged ‘heart rate’

I lied.  I said I was only going to do one quality session/week for the next few months, but I have a 5K next weekend that is set to be my first sub21 (woohoo!), so I figured I might as well milk what I can out of training till then, so I stuck a tempo in on Friday.

It was a 9-mile run with 3 @ tempo targeting 6:52s.  It was 77 and humid and I started the first mile darting around meandering teenagers competing in yet another rowing event (graduate already!) so I ended up averaging 6:58s.  Eh, it was an “extra credit” tempo anyway, so I was happy with it, regardless.

Today’s run needed no excuses though, it was a super swell 12-miler, capping off a 66-mile week.  After a week of humid days in the mid/upper 70s, today’s 61 and cloudy was heaven, reaping me a 8:01 pace with a nice low avg. HR of 68% HRR.  My resting, btw, hit a new low this morning of 43, a welcome contrast to the entire month preceding my Half, when it remained elevated at 48, 49.

Back to movie gab, we saw Spellbound last night, about kids competing in the National Spelling Bee.  Kazz, you were right, it’s great – I laughed, I cried, I totally loved it.  Word Wars (the Scrabble one) is coming soon, though not before Bigger Stronger Faster which looks like huge fun – it’s a documentary about steroid freaks.  I can’t wait!

As per our usual catch up, Wednesday was an easy 11@8:29 and yesterday was an easy 7@8:32.  On the latter run I wore my HR monitor, which I rarely do for easys, but I wanted to see where I stood lately after all this racing.   It ended up giving me some very positive feedback so I was excited to use it for today’s tempo.

Since the run today was focused on goal Half pace and with 6 weeks to go, I’m still mulling it over, I’ve been thinking about 7:25/mi. which would get me a 1:37:04.  But then, how can you look at that and not think, “so close to 1:36″ so I finally aimed for 7:23s today, figuring that if the HR monitor told me “too much, back off”, I’d obey without a fight.

It was a lovely day out, 61 degrees, which I thought might work against me since I’ve been running in cooler weather and anything above 55 makes me nervous, but it ended up being juuust right.  My splits were 7:24, 7:23, 7:21, 7:21, 7:24 for an average pace of 7:22.  The best part is my Heart Rate averaged 172 (83% HRR) – well situated for a Half.

As comparison, my last tempo on March 6th (haven’t done them recently due to racing) on a similar 55 degree day was 6 miles @ 7:35, so here’s how the first 5 tempo miles of that run compares to today’s 5 miles.

March 6,   7:35/mi, avg. HR 176 (86% HRR, Max 89%)
March 27, 7:22/mi, avg. HR 172 (83% HRR, Max 86%)

I do believe that 1:36:30 is now a reasonable goal for May 3rd.  Woohoo!

Funny thing, I was looking at my receipt for the Half yesterday which I paid for back in October (a couple weeks before I’d even run Steamtown) and you had to fill in a projected finish time.  I had written 1:43 – and that was me being optimistic.

This is an entertaining time, is all I can say.

I described today’s tempo run a couple posts down, but upon rereading the plan, realized that Hudson really meant 2 x 15min at Half to 10K pace w/1min rec. Nevertheless, my original plan (15min@Half pace, 1 min rec., 15min@10K pace) sounded really good to me so that’s what I did, along with about 4.5 miles warmup/cooldown.

The Half pace section came in at 7:29/mi, then I jogged lightly for a min and did the second 15mins at 7:09/mi. My HR on the first section averaged 171 (82%WHR) and on the 10K section averaged 178 (85%WHR). According to my fabulous Greg Maclin’s HR Excel sheet, this fits in perfectly with the respective race paces, so…yay!

I still have lots of time to work on my Half pace so that’s pretty cool. My 10K, on the other hand, is just a couple weeks away, so not a lot to be done, but I might be able to make a small dent. We shall see. In any case, it was a strong session today and I’m satisfied with it.

Now for an evening out, a little wine, friends and food and I’d call this the perfect day. Hope yours is shaping up to be a great one, too. Talk to you later, folks.

It was a hard, yet satisfying interval session: 5 x 1000 with 2min. recoveries (I jogged the first two, walked the second two).

Before I began the session, I followed Audra’s (aka Doggie Poo’s) swell advice to mark the path with duct tape so I would know where the hell to stop and start.  It worked a charm, thanks Audra!

Cut to the chase, my splits were:
4:19 (6:56/mi)
4:09 (6:40/mi)
4:18 (6:55/mi)
4:13 (6:47/mi)
4:20 (6:58/mi)
Average 4:15 (6:50/mi)

Finally, I am hanging out with the Sixes!! Woohoo!!

On top of this, remember yesterday I mentioned that sub 1:40 Half thread I joined?  In there is a wonderful guy, Mick, who’s deep into Heart Rate monitoring and analyzing the results…the guy knows his stuff.  In looking at my HR data and the fact that I reached 192 at the end of the last interval (supposedly 98% of my Max) he thinks my Max is higher than I’ve been calling it.

I established my max from my first race when it hit 193 and then added a couple points, so 195.  From the HR graph of today’s workout however, he thinks it’s probably 200.  This is wonderful news!  It means that some of the guilt I feel for not holding back enough on easy runs is for naught.   My monitored runs will now be accompanied by a clearer conscience.

As for my current Half plan, I had a fun time last night messing around with the schedule.  As you know, I’m doing a Hudson-type plan (“type” because he’s all about adapting it to suit instead of doing it exactly as written).  I was still hemming and hawing on the next few weeks, because at this point in his plan, he only requires short fartlek stuff for speedwork when I’m capable and wanting to do meatier stuff.

Out of curiosity, I thumb to the 10K plans section of the book, because I have a 10k coming up in 3 weeks.  Lo and behold, it works out perfectly to take the last 3 weeks of the 10K plan and plop them into my current schedule.  Now I feel I have some meat to play with.  What more could a girl want?

Remember how I was going on about wearing my shoes till they got to 500?  Well, I’ve been feeling a little nervous about them since they’ve hit the 400s – I felt an ankle twinge on a couple mornings that disappeared when I wore my newest pair.

So today I did an experiment and put one new shoe (75 miles) on one foot and on the other foot, a 421-miled shoe.  It felt like I had a shorter leg.  Seriously, the old shoe was noticeably compressed.  My 364-miled shoe felt pretty close to the new one, but the 402-miled shoe was almost as bad as the 421. Thus, I tossed the 421 and 401 pair and kept the 364 (which I’ll throw out at 400 miles).

This left me no choice but to go on a shoe shopping spree at Running Warehouse.  Such fun, because both my Mizuno Inspires and lightweight Elixirs have new models (no complaints heard on either yet, knock on wood) and the women’s models are both lighter, so yay.

I also bought a small version (12 oz.) of my Amphipod handheld.  I’ve been ignoring hydration in these cold winter runs – haven’t felt the need to bring anything, but my longer runs could use something, so the little bottle looks perfect.  I might occasionally bring a gel on my long runs again, too, since I’ll have some water to down it with.

Temps look fine for Saturday’s Pickle, 26 degrees windchill, though I could do without the 15mph wind they’re calling for.  Not that it matters, it’s not a real race and I’m just going to go there with fun on my brain (hey, didn’t I give myself this same propaganda pep talk last week?).

On the run menu, yesterday I had 7 w/8 strides, avg pace 8:28.  And I forgot to post the pace on my 7.25 fartlek the other day – even with snowy footing at spots, a very zippy 8:13 avg.  Been a fast week, aside from the recovery run.

Today’s going to be 6 at a modest pace.  Since I’m not tapering for tomorrow, I figure I should at least make today a slower one.  It’ll be my shortest run since Xmas week, I seemed to have stopped doing 5s and 6s these days.

I will close this entry with an embarrassing admission:  I have been using my HR monitor more lately but haven’t been washing the strap when I get home, so over the last few days I’ve developed an annoying rash under my boobage area.   Little red bumps, not itchy, just hot and uncomfortable.  So I’m hereby going to be extra clean with my strap, and no monitoring for me till these little bumps go away.  Just when my HR info was getting interesting, too…

From short legs to rashy bumps.  I know, I know, my hawtness intimidates you.  Deal with it, people.

I’ve been wearing my HR monitor lately and one of its many uses is to keep the pace down.  Yesterday I employed it for just that, averaging 67% HRR (146) on my 9-miler, avg. pace 9:18.  I’m ashamed to admit it’s been a couple months since I’ve run at such a leisurely speed.

I didn’t wear the strap much last year, but the last time I recorded a run with that same HR was in September.   It was a 5-mile recovery run and my pace was 10:25.  Granted, it was 77 degrees that day, but Daniels/Runworks says that’s only worth 15 seconds at most so that’s a sizable difference.

My resting HR is changing, too – 46 yesterday.  Since it’s been 48-50 for a while now, that’s the cherry on the sundae.

Speaking of Sundae, or rather, Sunday…I’m looking forward to tomorrow: Doggie Poo/Audra (my Steamtown mate) will be in town and we’ll be doing a long run on Forbidden Drive, the gorgeous trail over here.

Besides the fun of running with Audra, I’m excited to get back to that particular running ground.  I’ve actively avoided it recently because a sweet online friend of mine was attacked on her local trail system in December.   It’s made me think twice about being out there alone, especially in the winter when there are fewer runners out.  I’m sure I’ll get over it, but it’s spooky, nonetheless.

So this is as good a time as any to remind you all to be careful.  Just because you’re a moving target doesn’t mean you’re impervious to the evils that lurk, as much as we like to think we are.

And on that uncomfortable note, have a great weekend everyone.  May your runs be light, effortless and big fun!  Weird kissing emoticon for you all.