Month: May 2010

Red Shirt, thanks for passing me! You gave me a challenge inside my fifth mile that nearly got me to run my distance today in under an hour!

Because of you, Red Shirt, I completed 8.08 miles (typically listed on Garmin as 8.15 miles) in 1:00:03, which is just 3 seconds shy of my challenge for the week of breaking an hour for that distance. I did better than I thought I was doing, turns out, and I think it was because of you!

Highlights of today’s run as I speedily type out this post:

It was pretty darn warm at 69 degrees with 80% humdity and clouds. My body felt a little banged up with a pull in my midback along the outside of my right ribcage, but it didn’t interfere with my run. I had a slight shin splint in the inside of my right leg, but it didn’t interfere that much. And inside my fifth mile, my left ankle suddenly “grabbed” but relaxed soon after. That surprised me but wasn’t catastrophic.

I saw Kara in the park today, who was a girl I shaked my booty with last night on set and rode part of the way home with. It was funny seeing her because we both said we were going to run in the morning! It was so quick that I didn’t get to say anything, but I’ll say something later today when I see her.

And I used my heart rate monitor today, too. My average HR was 174 bpm, which was in the 94% zone. Is that weird? I have to figure that out more: Can’t believe I’m training that hard. I loosened the strap a bit because it did feel before my run that it was restricting my breathing, making me work harder.

But a 7:25 pace isn’t bad considering the weather! I felt as if I did noticeably better today, possibly because of leg training I did a couple days ago when I couldn’t run.

This morning I did a mid-range run using my Garmin’s heart rate monitor. It’s my first run ever with a heart rate monitor, and it provided me some interesting biofeedback with which I’ve been unfamiliar to date.

Using the standard formula, my predicted MHR (maximum heart rate) was 186 bpm, but this run shows that I have at least the potential for 188 bpm since my final sprint brought me to that level. Before my run, within the first few minutes of waking, I put on the heart rate monitor to test out my RHR (resting heart rate). Garmin was a little erratic as I was trying to figure out if I needed GPS on or not to test out my heart rate, but it seems my RHR is somewhere between 72 and 75 bpm–at least for this morning.

For most of my run, my heart rate was between 169 and 172 bpm. You can see the fluctuations in my heart rate by clicking View Details in the above Garmin results and scrolling to the bottom-right graph labeled Heart Rate. I was thus working in the 90% range it would seem. I guess this is surprising to me because I didn’t feel I was working that hard.

What kept me from working very hard was my lower legs. The outside of my calves from my ankles up most of my calves just felt tired, and tired meant somewhat uncomfortable to run with. This discomfort generally left me around the 10K mark, when I was better able to push myself. I’m not sure why this is. The temperature was 63, cloudy, and a touch humid in about the 80% range. I guess after a full day of rest, I thought I’d have better performance. Noted, though, I was carrying about 2 lbs. more in weight, though I felt oddly leaner. Also, I wondered if the use of the heart rate monitor (which is an elastic strap around my ribcage) constricts my breathing a bit.

Garmin said I only did 8.06 miles when I did my standard 8.15 miles. This may spell to some degree why I have such a low-seeming pace. To note, I was able to speed up my last mile considerably, though I wasn’t able to break the 1-hour mark. Yet. Maybe this week.

Before the run was ArginMax, quercetin, and a PowerGel. I also tried a nitric oxide supplement last night but not today. After the run, I hit the gym for abs, arms, pecs, shoulders, and because of the issues, calves. At home I had some proteinous Naked Juice. Cheers!

“Strong finish,” said the man who’d passed me around the start of the last mile, whom I caught and passed and was challenged by and eventually blew by in the end. He said it to me as I was doing my finishing walk. It was an interesting 12.3 miles in Central Park today. It was my first true long run of the year, set in decent conditions–66 degrees, maybe 60% or 70% humidity, and mostly cloudy. That is, it wasn’t too hot, too humid, or too sunny, but it was alright.

If you view the details of this run, you will see that my pace for the first loop was considerably different than the pace for my second loop. My second loop was much faster!! My first half was basically 7:46, 8:03, 7:53, 8:46, 8:10, and 8:18–mostly above 8:00s, which is maybe a little embarrassing. But my second half was basically 8:09, 7:35, 7:11, 7:57, 7:36, 7:15, plus a wee bit at 6:29–mostly sub-8:00s, but sizably sub-8:00s.

I don’t really know where I got that oompah for the second half. One theory is that my music changed for the second half of the run; for the first half I listened to the 50-minute NPR podcast of On the Media, so I was listening to talk rather than to music. After that was over, the music kicked in, and it seemed my pace did, too. I was pretty warmed up by this point so I felt more comfortable picking up the pace. My heart rate seemed to agree, from what I could tell. And nothing really seemed to hold me back. So I let the desire to go faster rule, and rule it did for the second half of the run.

Despite the faster times, I got passed by a lot of men and one, maybe two women. I’m still not that fast. I was carrying a little more weight today, some from muscle I’ve added in my upper body, some from food like the ceremonial Oglio & Aglio with Chicken that I get Friday nights at Euro Delights. Plus, my legs felt pretty “dead” in the first half of the run: they just didn’t want to respond. Before the run, I had noticeable tightness in my Achilles tendon but where it attaches at the base of the gastrocnemius (or maybe I had tightness in the lower part of my calf/gastrocnemius). However, that tightness didn’t seem to add any discomfort to my run. In fact, I had no pain in my run today. I only wrestled with the residual unsuccessful coughs and throat-clearings from the cold I got a week ago and was done by last Sunday.

Before the run I had ArginMax and quercetin, as well as a PowerGel. I had my pasta late last night and had it despite feeling a little full from a meal a couple hours earlier, which included a few ravioli. I did this run with no water, and I capped off this run with some chocolate milk, some coconut water, and some proteinous Naked Juice. I’ll be having some salmon sushi in a bit. Protein! I plan on another run tomorrow, maybe about 8.15 miles if my body’s up for it. Comparing my 7:51s over 12.3 with this time in training last year, last year I didn’t do two laps until June 14th in similar weather, doing 7:31s. But my running over 8.15 last year is about the pace I am right now, so I think I’m doing well.