Another great 4.2 mile run

I had a great 4.2 mile run tonight! My wakeup HR was 51 this morning. I left early for work and ran when I got home, about dusk. I felt great and ran a faster pace than I usually do. I do my LSD at a "comfortable" pace. I don't try to run at any particular pace, and I let my body determine how fast I run.

When I first start running, my breathing pattern is 4-4, 4 steps (LRLR) as I breath in and 4 steps as I breath out. After the first mile, my breathing pattern goes to a 2-2 pattern. As with my pace, I don't force this pattern; my body just goes to it. Once in a while, if I need more oxygen when going up a hill or something, I'll do a 1-1 pattern, but I don't do it more than just a few times. Tonight, I caught myself doing a 1-2 pattern, one step as I breath in and two steps as I breath out. That's a strange pattern since it isn't symmetrical.

Training Graphs

A great 4.2 mile run

I had a great run today, adding 13% for a 4.2 mile run. My wakeup HR was 54 again, but I felt pretty good. The temperature was 40F with no wind. A nice day for running.

I met my goal of 4 miles by the end of January. I should be at 5 miles before the end of February. That will be special to me, because I was running 5 miles when the auto accident occurred. If I make that, I will have regained my mileage in 6 months of running. Even better is that I feel stronger now than I did before the accident. Before the accident, I was adding 10 or so percent every couple of weeks. Since the accident I've been doing that every week.

Training Graphs

Tired from a sleepless weekend

Last Saturday I spent all day helping my son with his tables at a gun show. I only got 4 hours sleep the night before because I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. During the show I was literally on my feet all day, not sitting down even once. The result of all this was that I was pretty tired on Monday and skipped my run. I'm doing better with my sleep, but I'm not fully recovered from the weekend. My wakeup PR has increased due to this increased stress and was 52 today.

I had a nice 3.7 mile run today. If I feel ok on Friday or Saturday, I'll bump it up 10% to 4.1 miles.

Training Graphs

Still tired

My wakeup HR was 49 and I felt pretty good but still a bit tired. I ran the 3.7 miles again, feeling better than I did on Monday. The temperature was in the high 40s during my run. I made the mistake of wearing my long pants and two layers, and I was really sweating. When I got up, there was frost on the neighboring houses, so I put on my long pants. However, I didn't go out for a couple of hours, and by then the temperature was in the high 40s. I didn't have much time left, so I didn't take time to change in to my shorts.

Training Graphs

Darkness and the canal trail don't mix

I had out of town visitors today, and I didn't go running until 8:30 pm. By then it was dark. I decided to try the canal road again. It has been several days since the snow melted, and I thought the trail would be dry. It wasn't. It wasn't mud but was still soft and hard to run in. I got pretty tired during the run. I had eaten supper just an hour before I left, and that didn't help me either.

I added 12% to my run, making it 3.7 miles. My wakeup HR was 50 again.

Training Graphs

A great running day

Today was another great day for running. 28F when I left and 34F when I returned from my 3.32 mile run. Sunny skies. Even though my wakeup HR was 49, I was a little more tired for this run than I had been earlier in the week. That's ok since it's the end of the week, and I have an extra rest day over the weekend. Most of the snow is gone, and I was able to pick some grass and feed it to the two horses that I pass.

Training Graphs

It's been five months since my accident

Ok, everybody, follow the bouncing ball (to the tune of Happy Birthday):

Happy anniversary to you
Happy anniversary to you
Happy running anniversary...
Happy anniversary to you.

Today is my 5 month anniversary since my accident. Five months ago I ran 1/8 mile and was very tired. Today I ran 3.32 miles and felt pretty good. My wakeup HR was 51. We had a touch of wet snow last night that froze on the ground and crunched as I ran. The middle of the streets was icy, from cars using the street, so I ran along the edge of the streets where cars hadn't gone. Virgin snow, even with a slight ice crust on it, isn't nearly as slick as ice caused by cars packing the snow. The temperature was 30F when I left and about 34-35 when I returned 35 minutes later. My pace was around 10 minute miles, which is slow, but that is ok since I'm focusing on distance. As I get stronger, my pace will pick up. It already has a bit.

I've been adding 10+% to my distance each week. Before the accident I needed 2-3 weeks for a 10% increase. I seem to be stronger now than I was before the accident. Seems strange... If I can keep up this rate of increase, I'll do 4 miles by the end of January and 5 by the end of February. My pre-accident distance was 5 miles. If I make that distance by the end of February, my accident will only have set me back about 9 months.

Training Graphs

Sleep, wonderful sleep...

What a difference an hour makes! I've been getting 7 hours sleep. Last night I got 8 hours, and I felt like a million dollars. My wakeup HR was 49, and I had a wonderful run. I added 10.7% for a total of 3.32 miles. The temperature was 37 when I left, and I ran in the rain. I haven't run in rain for a long time and it brought back memories of Massachusetts. I do, though, need to spray my nylon wind breaker with Silicone to keep out the water. My shirt was damp from water leaking through, but that's ok, it would have been damp from sweat anyway. A great run today! Such a difference from last week when I had a slight cold.

Training Graphs

Windy today

My wakeup HR was down a point to 50. I felt pretty good and went out running. The temperature was about 39F, but there was a 20 or so mph cold wind. I felt comfortable in my 3 layers when I left but was sweating by the time I finished. I normally would unzip my wind breaker, or take it off, when I begin to sweat, but I kept it on today due to the wind.

Going against the wind was tiring but going with a 20 mph tailwind was great!

Training Graphs

Colds? What are they?

My wakeup HR is dropping as fast as it went up last week! It was 51 this morning. I think I've figured out why it went so high, and the cause is related to lack of sleep. A couple of weeks ago I didn't get enough sleep for a night or two, and I picked up a slight cold. My nose dripped a bit and I had an occasional cough that brought up thick, green stuff. My nose was dripping thin mucus. As far as colds go, it was a slight cold, but my HR went up. My cold is pretty much gone and my HR is coming down.

I don't get colds very often. Before I started running, I got several bad colds per year. Then one day I realized I wasn't getting colds anymore. That was about 25 years ago. Even though I'm at an advanced age (69) I don't get flu shots since I have a strong immune system. The only time I get a cold is if I get insufficient sleep or overtrain, both causing my immune system to weaken.

Training Graphs

Sugar spikes are bad. Low HR is good.

I haven't run much during the past week or so. My wakeup HR went sky high to 60. Usually when my HR goes that high it's because of lack of sleep. However, I've been getting good sleep. I can think of two possibilities for causing the HR to rise.

1. During the New Years weekend I ate a lot of candy, chips, etc. It was a dumb thing to but at the time it tasted good :( Foods with a high glycaemic value (high in sugars) cause an insulin spike, and this upsets your body chemistry. I'm not a doctor, but I would suspect this could affect ones heart rate.

2. I've been running four months since my accident, and during that time, I've made very good progress in my running. I've consistently added 10-12% each week to my distance (one time I added 18%), and for the most part I've felt good during my running. It may be that it is time to give my body some extra rest. The running literature recommends that you take a monthly rest week to give your body extra rest. The literature recommends running heavy/light during each week, and then, once a month, decreasing the mileage during the week to run a light week. I haven't been doing that, and my body may have been signaling me to give it some extra rest.

At any rate, my wakeup HR was down to 55 this morning, and I felt pretty good. I ran my 3 mile course and felt good at the end. The temperature was 32, and a light snow was falling (we have about 4-6 inches on the ground). The sidewalks and streets were clear of snow, and I had a good run. It was nice to get out and run.

Happy New Year everybody!

Today is New Years day, and my run was my way of welcoming in the new year. The temperature was in the low 40s and we had about 3 inches of new snow on the ground. I started my run by going down the canal road, but I exited the canal road after 0.85 miles because I was getting very tired. The snow on the canal road had been packed by snowmobilers, but it was hard to run in. I continued my run on city streets that were clear of snow and felt fine.

Santa gave me a Sportline 360 podometer for Christmas, and I used that to measure my distance. I added 12% today to make my run 3.0 miles. My wakeup HR was 52.