Crenn1e's Running Blog

I haven’t posted much lately but I just wanted to post that today I Was sick and my run was terrible.  My HR was elevated due to my low fever, and stopped to meet a neighbor (which was not terrible) and then fielded 3 Headhunter calls for jobs while jogging.

15+ minute miles is not good.

I had 2 5 mile runs to start this week and both were improvements on last week. I am happy.

Monday I improved my 5 mile time by a minute per mile (5 minutes total) which is pretty good in just a week. Today I ran 5 again and improved 35 seconds per mile again.  That is 1.5 minutes faster per mile then last week over 5 miles.

These were all “recovery” runs so there was no running at > then 70% max HR, and that makes the improvement more important. I did 5 miles in 1hour 10 minutes and all at a recovery HR.

I had a good run today but it had a vary strange start.

I was humming along, 1 mile down and in my own headphone world when suddenly I felt a thump from behind. I had no idea what it could be, felt like a kid ran into me with their bike.

It was Gizmo, as I am now free to call her. Apparently I was tracked down by a german shepard, and for whatever reason she thought it would be fun to ram right into my butt. Needless to say I was startled.  I turned and yelled at her, and she raced home. I went and talked to the owner and let them know because this was the 4th time some dog from their yard had chased me, but no harm was done.

I was more worried about the dogs getting smeared by a passing car.

4 miles and lots of sprinting.

It was a fast run for me and fun, the only downside was having to walk the last mile to keep in the 60% HR target.

But even with the walking I was able to post a sub 14 min 4 mile run and for that I am excited.

Today was my first “hard day”  on the Heart Rate workout schedule.

Hard Day:

1 mile- ez pace

1 mile- wind sprints

1 mile- longer easier wind sprints

1 mile- ez pace

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Summary: It was fun but I knew the wind sprints would make it horribly hard to do the ez pace afterwards. The sprints were 100-200 meter sprints followed by 100-200 ez jog. But the Jog ended up being walks because the HR was too high to keep jogging (for the 60% target).

That being said, even with all the walking between, I still ended up with a 4 mile workout @ nearly a sub-14 minute pace. Which I was pleased with.

Results:

I weighed in today and I am 15 lbs from my honeymoon weight. I have lost 45 lbs since last summer, and really I have only been going at this seriously since early spring 09.

I bought new LunarGlide’s (like Tony’s but black), because the rubber on the bottoms of my LunarLite’s have pretty much worn off and it is just foam on road lol. I wore the old shoes today figuring it was best since this was my first harder run and needed a familiar pair on my feet.

Today’s run was a perfect example of a hell run.

It was raining the entire time, soaking even.. so I wore a jogging jacket.  But I had a 5 miler to log and I wasn’t going to hit the treadmill.

Built up my nerve, and started out. iPhone under my jacket in waterproof case, but what’s this?  No half mile update? I finally stop at 3/4 miles to check the thing and the program was clocking minutes but NO DISTANCE?!  Typically it warns you or stops and says “workout stopped”  when it loses connection with the receiver, but not this time.  SUCK!

So I got a mile in, ended that workout and started over, but I wanted my 5 miles for the day.  So with rain pouring down I trudged on for 5 more miles, checking the thing often to make sure it was working.

I finished the five miles, 6 miles total.. exhausted (not terribly though) and wetter then I have every been.

The nice thing is it was 60f and raining so my heat was down and I was able to stay at my recovery threshold even after 6 miles.

So all in all it was a hell run, but it felt good to finish.  A nice challenge completed.

I went running yesterday and did a 5 mile 70%MHR.  It went pretty well, I think I walked once for about 100 ft.

At the last quarter mile I decided to jet a little, my legs felt really strong so I cut loose.  As my HR began to climb I noticed I still felt very strong in my legs for having done 5 miles, so I thought “this might be a really good time to try and get a real Max Heart Rate.  So I tried.

I ran hard.  I mean really hard.  For 1q mile. So hard that I had a little headache and thought I would lose my cookies. But it was worth it. What I found changed everything for my running goals.  My heart rate reached 195, which is 6 beats per minute faster then all the typical Max Heart Rate equations put me at.

This means I can slide all my 65%, 70%, 80% targets out 6 beats.  And that is what I did today.

I had a good run.  Today’s workout was a 1 mile @ 65%, 1 mile @ 80%, then back to 65% to finish. So my starting mile was quicker by nature, or harder if you prefer. My fast mile was quite a bit faster then previous days and that made me happy. And it may have even been easier to do, setting my goal HR at 167 bpm.

I had fun, my 3 mile time was just over 40 minutes (mostly due to that 3rd mile being so tough, to get my HR back down to 147 bpm). But my middle mile was under 11 minutes and for that I am smiling.  :)

Ha!  I got Second Place for the “July for Slow Runners”  challange!  Apparently the guy who created the challenge removed a bunch of people the last day for not being “slow runners”.  I was in 2-3 place going into the last day either way.

I joined August for Slow Runners, also… but secretly I hope to give him a reason to disqualify me.  :)

Today I spent the entire day doing physical labor, and I was exhausted and probably a little dehydrated when I got home.

Today, my 5 mile was scheduled for 70% of my HR according to the Novice training schedule in The Book.

It took everything in my being to run it.  I ran it slooooooow, my HR was at 70% at just 16 minute miles.  Exhaustion KILLS your HR training. From now on I will aim to do my running prior to a long day of laborious activities.

So, for running (or shuffling, hey it is actually worse to run slow then fast) for 4.6 miles and walking the last .4 quickly (for me) after a long day of constant lifting and sweating.. I nominated myself the Greatest Runner Alive! for 9:18Pm 07/28/2009.

LOL  *I don’t usually pat myself on the back so hard but tonight I had to.

No Shin splints, this simple exercise has actually worked for me twice.  For anyone who suffers from shin-splints, it’s worth a shot:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Sc2yG1PVs&feature=related

Heat really does make a difference.  My run started goo, staying 10 beats under my threshold even.  As soon as the sun came out my beats bounced and I was having trouble staying under my 150 threshold.

My calibration was off again, had to reset and re-calibrate and I have resolved myself to leaving the run set correctly and leaving the walking as default.  This means I lose 20% off my walk distance instead of gaining 20% extra speed/distance on my runs.  I’ll just have to deal with that.

I have a 5 mile 70% heart rate run tomorrow and I am not looking forward too it, not because I can’t make the distance (I did all last week) but I am not looking forward to fighting my heart rate and legs wanting to go faster.