Heart Rate Training

Although I am not specifically following a heart rate training program, I try to be in tune with my heart rate and making sure I keep it in a good zone for exercising and what it is at rest. There are tons of good websites out there to explain what your heart rate range should be so I will spare you all the details here.

One thing that a lot of people do not know is that the most important number is your resting heart rate. Your heart rate is nothing but the number of times your heart beats in a minute. Your resting heart rate is the rate rate when your body is resting – it reflects how efficiently our heart and lungs are working. The SLOWER the better.  It should be measured before getting out of bed in the morning (hence ther reason I usually forget to measure it!).

A VERY general range would be:
Normal Adult Range is 60-80 Beats per Minute (bpm)
Athletes Range is 35-50 bpm (Lance Armstrong’s is 32!, John’s is in the high 40’s  – amazing!)

I am happy to say that for two weeks now my resting heart rate has been at 60 BPM. I feel good about that and can’t wait to see it get lower. It is just one more indicator of health… I like numbers, which is odd since I never liked math growing up, and find that this is a tangible way to tell how I am doing.  Many articles on weightloss say to stay away from the scale as much as possible.

Scale weight, although most people what it to go down, is so fickle. You may have had the best week possible in terms of exercise and food and find that the scale did not move (or did not move as much as you wanted to). How many times have we let the scale determine the course of the rest of the day or week? It is ridiculous!

So, like I said, my heart rate has been 60 – it was 60 again this morning, dispelling all thoughts I had that perhaps I was overtraining.  I realize after thinking about this that this is something else I do a lot – I overly obsess with the “bad” things that can happen. Am I over training, did I pull something, am I going to hurt myself… John keeps telling me I just need to go out and run and not worry about things. He doesn’t ever seem to worry about these things (but, on the other hand, he does get hurt more than I do!) hmmm.

Well, this morning I did not worry that it was cold and wet. I just went out and ran, once again, in the rain. For the first two miles I wore my rain jacket. I was so hot after those two miles I just decided suck it up and take the jacket off. Luckily by this time it was just a heavy mist rather than actual rain so it wasn’t too bad.  Unfortunately I was supposed to do 6 miles, but was only able to do 5. I left the house a bit late waiting for the rain to slow down, then all the fooling about with my rain gear put me behind. I had to be at work at 10:00 so I had to cut it short. I am not worried about it – last Saturday I did 6 miles, when I should only have done 5, so today I am taking that 5 back!

Now, a couple of more hours of work (oh, yes, I should be working, shoudn’t I?) and then off to Mom and Dad’s. It will be a wonderfully relaxing night!

Rest Day Eve

I just dawned on me that most of my Thursday posts dwell on the wonderful fact that tomorrow is rest day. I am sorry for that but I cannot describe what a nice feeling it is to have one day off from exercise. By Thursday nights my body is tired.

My running is going well this week. Apparently this is the “step back” week in training where my mileage takes a slight dip – only 22 miles. After tomorrow I get to run 6 on Saturday at race pace and another 6 on Sunday at a slow pace. According to Hal Higdon this is a break.

I just Googled Hal Higdon (my newest coach even though he doesn’t know it) to find some quotes to inspire me to run faster and stronger. As I am looking down the training plan I have a couple of hard weeks coming up. I love quotes and sometimes when I run I replay them in my head to keep going.

Well, the first quote I came across was not exactly inspirational, but it did make me laugh…

“The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals.”

Lovely!

I have a lot to look forward to!

Today I only had to run 3 miles, which, since it was beautiful outside today, I ran my work loop. I started off at a good 10:30 pace but once again couldn’t get my breathing right. I had this problem last night, too. I really had to focus on taking deep breaths. My legs felt ok, it just seemed harder than it should. When I got home and downloaded my workout from the Garmin I saw that my heart rate was higher than normal. On these runs my max heart rate is usually 149-153, Today it was 165 – and it was there quite awhile. My heart was working way too hard today.

I read that elevated heart rate is a sign of over training. I do not feel like I am, but I have added extra workouts this week. I am doing JIllian’s 30 Day Shred in addition to the running. Maybe it is too much? Not sure. I am going to take my resting heart rate in the morning to see if it is elevated, too. That is really the true indicator. Maybe I just need my rest day!

Today I burned 475 calories running and another 275 with the Shred and some extra abs and stretches. I am getting my arm strength back – I was so strong after P90X, but after not doing weights in awhile it is amazing how quickly that strength fades.

Tonight I am going to bed early to get the rest day started.

Much Better!

Today was a productive and fun day. Really a huge turn-around from yesterday, as Wednesdays usually are.

Right after work I quickly changed and headed to Harmon Field to meet up with Scarlette  an official Tryon Running Club run.  Only one other lady showed up – hopefully more will start coming. It is really fun meeting net people.  We headed out on a new 4 mile route that took us up hill for the first 1.5 miles. I am not going to lie… it was tough for me tonight.  I did not have the best food day – we had a little party at work and I indulged (not too much, but still not training food!). I missed my afternoon snack and did not consume all my water. Combine that with a lot of sitting and my legs just did not have the strength that they should have had. We maintained a nice 10;15 pace, despite the hill. I was really huffy and puffy and could never get my breathing right. I had to turn off my music so I could just focus on breathing and running.

We did the the 4 mile loop that we intended to do for the run, but I still had to get in another mile – tonight was a 5 mile night. I ended up burning 775 calories.

I got home, drank some water and headed down for my date with Jillian. I did the 30 Day Shred and burned another 225 calories.

I didn’t stretch – I should have, but I didn’t feel like it.

It is just about time for bed!

 

Tuesday

What else is there to say? Did you know that apparently in the Greek world Tuesday is an unlucky day…. hmmm, I think it is that way in the adidas world, too! I think it is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, instead of dwelling on the miserableness that was today I will focus on the good…

1. I had a delicious cup of coffee this morning followed by a lovely breakfast
2. I wore my pretty new maroon shirt and got lots of compliments
3. I brought butternut squash soup for lunch and it was delicious!
4. I got my run in and listened to Lady Gaga – lots of fun music
5. I had Greek yogurt and mandarin oranges for my snack (I do everyday, but it still makes me happy)
6. I got home safely despite the rain
7. John unloaded the dishwasher and did laundry
8. Biggest Loser is on tonight

Clearly, it was a day full of good things.

That’s all I have to say tonight. Good night!

Goals

I was thinking the other night about the changes I have been going through this year. I have lost weight, ran races, met new people, finished P90X… these are the big things but there are smaller things everyday. One being, not having negative thoughts about myself. How often did I used to think that I wasn’t strong enough to run, I wasn’t fast enough to race, people would laugh at me if I showed up at the starting line. These thoughts whirled in my head constantly.

Another huge change is that it is now effortless. I eat right and exercise daily with no thought what so ever. Yes, I have days where I want to eat something unhealthy but now I either ignore that want or eat it. If I eat it I enjoy it with no guilt. If I eat too much I do not abandon all hope and give up. I did not start calling myself names – telling myself that I am weak and lazy and that I will never lose the weight. I do not say anything of those things.

The biggest difference is that I know I will succeed. If I do the right things every day it will come. Maybe not as fast as I want it to, but it will happen. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind.

So, what changed? Why did I spend 20 years of my adult life “trying” to lose weight. Why did I struggle so hard to keep it off if I did lose it? Why was it so hard to get motivated every time I decided to “try” again. The main difference is GOALS. Specifically not weightloss goals. Yes, it started out that way… last September my one goal was to lose 100 pounds by September 2009. After I started really thinking about my life though I decided to set other types of goals like finishing my first round of the 30 Day Shred, running my first 5K, training and running for my first 10K, completing P90X.

With every new challenge came a new confidence. I slowly started to believe I could do these things. It became less about the weight and more about eating right to keep my energy up. I needed to fuel these workouts. It was too hard to run after having too many cocktails and pizza! Forget about the calories I have miles to log!

I read on Jillian’s website that about 90% of people that only have a weightloss goal gain the weight back if they lose it. If all they are doing it striving for some magic number then what happens when they reach that number? What is the purpose then? Nothing. Striving for something more than some number is the key.

This simple shift in thinking is magical. It makes Friday morning weigh-ins less stressful. Yes, I still have pounds to lose, but if I go a couple of weeks without losing, even if I think I should have, I can think back to that week and maybe I ran longer than ever, maybe faster, perhaps I did real push-ups or jumped higher. There are so many successes now that it is so easy not to let one thing get me down.

Workouts today:
Today was the third day of my second round of Jillian’s 30 Day Shred. In an effort to try to burn more than 220 calories like I have been I was really trying to jump higher and put more intensity in my moves. I still only burned 220 calories! Oh well. AND, in the process almost did something bad to my right foot. I do not think I did anything serious to it, but it did hurt for a moment after jumping jacks like something snapped in it… that sounds really bad, but I do not think anything happened. I really do not know what it was but I iced it and it feels ok right now.

At lunch today I had a really great interval session on the elliptical. I burned 300 calories. I got up to level 17 – it was pretty intense. The gym was pretty crowded by the end of my workout and I am sure I was really breathing hard but I do not care. I was on a mission!

Now I am going to shower and go to bed. Good night!

Nine miles – DONE!

Today was my longest run yet… I ran nine miles in 1 hour and 40 minutes. I was a really nice run down a long road and back. It is really the perfect place to run – lots of open fields, mountain views and horses. Very few cars passed me and I was able to relax and run.

I experimented with my new waist pack with water bottle. I was very pleased with it. It fit snugly to the small of my  back and didn’t move. I was mostly unaware of it the whole run. There is an easy access pouch where I kept my pepper spray. The larger pouch was perfect for my phone, power gel, chap stick and key. There is run for more little things, if needed.

When I started the run it was 45 degrees. I had on my usual running outfit – compression shorts with shorts over the top and my short sleeved running shirt. I knew I would get too hot with anything else. I did wear my new lightweight gloves. If my hands got hot I knew that there would be room in my waist pack. I ended up wearing them the entire 9 miles. When I finished the temperature was 55 degrees.

At the half way mark I touch my power gel and drank a few ounces of water with electryle powder mixed in it. It really did the trick. I drank more on the way back when I made it to the top of the two longest hills. Surprisingly my legs felt really good.

For the run I burned 1297 calories!

After that I cleaned up and headed to Costco to stock up on my weekly supplies. I also stopped by Kohls to try on some more pants. The pants I have fit fine in the morning, but by the afternoon they are so baggy it is uncomfortable. I tried on a lot of pairs and I fit into the next size smaller, but comfortably. The waist is just tight enough where it would have bothered me all day. I guess I will have to suffer with the larger pants for awhile longer.

I got home and cooked some food for the week – roasted chicken, butternut squash soup and also cut up some salad stuff. We had some of the chicken and soup for dinner but I will eat the rest for lunch this week. The soup is so good. There is nothing but squash and other vegetables – healthy and delicious.

After cleaning up and letting my food digest I changed into my exercise clothes once again to do the 30 Day Shred. I decided to alternate the three workouts so today I did level 2. It is harder due to all the plank moves but still only burned 220 calories.

My total calorie burn for today is a whopping 1,517!

Now I am sitting her nursing a sore neck. Somehow I pulled something or pinched a nerve. I actually think it happened while trying on clothes – I have no idea how!

That is a nice way to end the week!

Calorie burn Saturday

Today I woke up with a really sore right hip and was worried how today’s run would go. I spent a lot of time in the morning trying to loosen it up. I did some dynamic stretching then some acitve isolated stretching. It still was sore on my way to the run, but it did feel better. After a mile or so in I didn’t even feel it anymore.

The run today was fun. Scarlette suggested a new route (new to me). It is a beautiful country road with rolling hills. It is really the best place to run around here. We set off at a good pace that we were able to maintain the whole time – 10:50-11:00 minutes per mile. It was good for a run this length right now. It was warmer than I expected and the sun blarred down on us most of the time. There was one long hill that was really tough and we actually took a couple minute walking break while we drank some water and let our heart rates go down a bit.

I carried my water in my hand strap. I really am hesitant about wearing my waist belt because my SPI belt rides so much. I will have to try it tomorrow, though. I have a big 9 mile run and I will have to carry my water and some Gu – also my phone and pepper spray. There is a lot to tote on these long runs!

So, like I said, tomorrow is 9 miles. This will be my longest yet. I am going to do the same running route we did today. Because my long run can be a bit slower – around a 12 minute per mile pace – I will probably take some walking breaks up the hills. I will just have to see how it goes. I am going to try to get out earlier than we did today to try to avoid the hot sun.

After my run today I had to go buy some new shoes.  I needed to get some comfortable flats. The heels are just not working. Everything now is about the marathon and keeping my body as pain-free as possible. This week I wore heels and my feet have been in pain all week. No more. I found two nice pairs but now will probably have to get my pants hemmed! The reason I have to wear heels with my pants because most are way to long.

When I got home from my shopping trip I got my workout clothes back on and headed down to the workout room for the first day of my 30 Day Shred challenge. Marie, Ilka and I are going to do Jillian’s workout for the next 30 days and see if we can get a few pounds off before Thanksgiving. I is still a good workout, but not as hard as I remembered it being…. could it be the P90X and the running?

I looked back to my journal on Sparkpeople that I kept during my first round of 30 Day Shred. I was doing it last year at the exact same time I am this year. It is so funny reading the things I wrote. I was struggling so much with getting through all the jumping jacks and jumps ropes. I could barely do the butt kicks. I heartrate was sky high (constantly about 90% of my max) and I burned a ton of calories – some days over 400 calories. Fast forward to this year…  It was a good workout but I did not have any trouble getting through any of the circuits. The highest my heartrate went was 144, which is 80% of my max.  The unfortunate part was that I only burned 230 calories. wow – that is a huge difference.

I do like the workout though and will continue to do it. I like that it is short and gives me a variety of moves. With all the running I have been struggling with makeing sure I get my ab workout done and some upper body training in. 30 Day Shred should do the trick.

We had a delicious meal of Spaghetti alla Carbonara. Yummy and delicious and hopefully good fuel for tomorrow. Not light be any means, but I hardly ate anything today so a few extra calories were ok.  It is not like me to not eat much, but I just wasn’t hungry after the run. I did make sure I had a snack of Ezekiel bread and hummus sandwich – I knew I had to get something in me to recover.

I also did two rounds of stretching.

I ended up burning 1,111 calories today. Good. Tomorrow should be a record breaker with the 9 mile run AND Shred! That should be interesting!!!

Now off to read a bit before heading to bed early.

The price of fashion

Well, I do not think anyone would call me a fashionista, but as we move in to the fall season I have switched from capris and flat shoes to slacks and heels. I have to say that I have had a TON of compliments this week at work. I bought a few new things last week and I feel pretty good in them. Truth be told I really could have probably gone down a size in pants. By the end of the day they are uncomfortably lose.

The problem is that I have been wearing heels.  I am not talking about stilettos or anything, but high enough. I found that my calves and feet have been sore this week – especially my feet. Last night I had a twinge of pain in my lateral planar nerve. (haha, that sounds, good, doesn’t it). Basically the ball of my foot – the nerves are being compressed in the high heels. NOT GOOD when you are training for a marathon!

So, I am going to have to find some new shoes this weekend.  I need some crazy-hippie shoes! Those Birkenstock people know what they are doing – they just aren’t quite as sleek as a pair of black heels! Function over fashion, I guess.

On another note… I measured myself this morning. I have lost 2 inches around my abs, a half inch on my chest and I GAINED 1.5 inches around my calves! Apparently all this running is building some muscle. I also weighed myself and FINALLY lost one pound. Hopefully my body is done holding on to these stupid pounds and I will start shedding them again.

Which leads me to… the 30 Day Shred. I REALLY need to lose this weight before my half marathon. The bottom line is that I am not burning enough calories. When I was losing my weight at a good rate I was burning 1000 calories a day. Since I have been running I have ONLY been running. Except for the long weekend runs I really only burn about 400 calories a day. This is NOT enough to lose weight. So, I have challenged Ilka and Marie to the 30 Day Shred. If anyone can get this weight off Jillian can. I will have to figure out how to get it worked in with my runs. It is only 30 minutes so the only problem during the week will be Wednesdays since I have to run at night. I REALLY do not want to get up in the morning and do it, but I might have to. Weekends will be another story. With my mileage increasing on the weekends it will be  a bit of a pain to also do this short, but intense workout. I will just have to suck it up and do it!

Now I am going to finish my wine and go to bed. I have a 6 miler tomorrow – let’s hope these feet feel better!

Running buddies

Today I really struggled again with wanting to run and was on the brink of not doing it. I thought those 3 miles didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things… but they do. They matter because I commited to running a plan and I need to do it right. There are no shortcuts to getting in shape and reaching a goal. It is sometimes hard work. There is a quote that someone said like – if marathons were easy everyone would do them. I do not know the exact words, but you get the point.

What helped me through are my friends. I knew I could count on them to go with me and provide fun and laughter the whole 3 miles and they did. The best part of this is that this IS what running is about. I was thinking about the whole past year and all the people I have meant along the way.

The very first race this year – The Grasshopper 5K. I showed up along, but met some other women at the port-a-potty before the start. We shared nervousness and cold… it was freezing that day. I went off and ran and found them at the finish line cheering for me.

My second race this year was in Charlotte and I went with my parents and nephew. They did the walk and I ran. It was great having them their enjoying the race with me.

Next I started my 10K training and met tons of great people that constantly helped and encouraged me along the way. By far the best decision I ever made. At the race there were tons of motivated and fun people at the starting line and of course, my parents cheering me on.

Now recently I have met several more people through running… I have done a few training runs with a couple of girls from Tryon and look forward to running with them more. I also have my friends Ilka and Marie at work that I get to spend 5 days a week with and I love working out with them.

Up until running I spent a lot of time alone. Not lonely, but just on my own. I really didn’t do much to meet new people. I really like this new stage of my life. It is fun getting out and meeting new people.

I found a great quote in the wonderful book I am reading – In Born to Run by Christopher McDougall he says, ” The reason we race isn’t so much to beat each other, but to be with each other.” I think that sums it up nicely.

Legs like lead

It has finally hit me – my muscles are tired. I have been running pretty strong for a few weeks now and I am feeling the mileage increase this week. I had my 5 mile run today and it was all I could do to finish it. I once again played a bit of a mind trick with myself and told myself that I would run 3 miles and if I didn’t want to go any farther I could stop. Well, at the three mile mark it seemed pretty ridiculous not to go the other two… I was already dressed, already there and already suited up with my watch, Ipod, etc. Why stop?

The plan I am following calls for two “build” weeks followed by a “step-back” week. The build weeks are hard weeks where mileage and pace are increased followed by the step back week where mileage is decreased slightly. The week after the step back week apparently gets harder. I think this plan will be good – I like the idea of knowing that I have that step-back week to look forward to.

The problem right now is that before I started my official marathon training I had to build up to it. I had to build up my mileage to even start the marathon plan. I started seriously building my mileage on September 7th.

Here is how my mileage has built each week:
9/7: 15.35
9/14: 18.47
9/21: 16.66
9/29: 23.27
10/5: 22.43

My marathon training started 10/12 and I had to run 24 miles, so all of this was necessary to get to that point. I guess I had my own “step-back” week on the 21st – since I only ran 16.66 miles, but I don’t know how much it helped. Who knows, maybe I would have been more tired than I am if I didn’t have that lower week.

Also, I have to admit that I have been neglecting my stretching. I just forget really. I did them tonight and I could tell that my legs were pretty tight. They were getting more flexible when I was doing it consistently for the last couple of weeks. It is amazing how quickly the flexibility goes away!

Tomorrow I have three more miles until my beloved rest day!

Now I need to find another inspirational audio book. I loved listening to the Lance Armstrong book. Just knowing that there are people out there like him fighting cancer and not only surviving, but thriving and changing the world… it is pretty amazing. Hearing how he battled up mountains after his recovery was so amazing – surely I can get my butt around the park for 5 miles!