Just Running

This week I've mostly just been running. On Monday I ran about three miles and concentrated on my stride. I've started imagining guidelines coming out of my body. One from the top of my head that goes all through my spine - that's to help me keep good posture throughout the run. Then I have wires coming out of my shoulders and hips - those help pull me forward - but keep my body square. Then I imagine pulling those lines in - like they're on a pulley - so every time my arms swing forward I pull in a bit more line. It really seems to help, especially when I'm getting tired.

The weather has been really nice - not cold, but not too hot yet. On Tuesday I ran another three miles. I meant to go out and run each one at about 10:30, but I headed out much faster than that - I finished the first mile in 9:48. So the next two were slower. I ended up averaging under 10:30, but it still wasn't the run I was aiming for. I had wanted just a nice, easy, steady run. So I need to work on controlling the run at the beginning, not heading out too fast, 'cause that wears me out quickly.

Yesterday I did a strange interval workout. It is one of the preset ones that came with my Garmin. So, I ran 2 minutes each in heart rate zone 1, 2 and 3. Then half a mile in zone 4 followed by 4 and a half minutes in zone two. The half mile and 4.5 minutes repeated for a total of 4 times, and then I finished with 2 minutes in zone 2 and 2 in zone 1.

It felt pretty good, but I ran into some of the same issues I had with the base running. If I go up anything that even resembles an incline - I have to drastically cut my speed to stay in the same zone and once I'm above the zone, it is very hard to drop back down. And then sometimes when I do drop back down - I let it drop too far.

It was also amazing to me that by the end - I had been out for about 51 minutes, but had barely run 4 miles!! Now, I was walking a fair bit. like those 4.5 minutes in zone 2, because there was no other way to get my heart rate into the right zone. But it still felt crazy. So I wondered again if the zones aren't quite correct for me. It just seems like it was supposed to feel much harder.

Anyway, today I'll go out and do an easy run, 'cause my legs have been feeling a bit tired and tight. Though I also haven't been stretching. I think the bigger issue though is that this is more running than I've done in a long time. I really want to be running 4-6 times a week though. And I really want to get better times in my races this year!

Base Miles

Okay, so this whole base mile project has been a little crazy. After my last post I did a couple more base mile runs - they seemed to be better with the new heart rate zones, but I still felt like maybe I was doing something wrong. Then last Saturday I went out and did just a regular run. It felt so good to be running again! Actually stretching out my legs instead of keeping my stride small and tight.

However, I may have overextended myself a bit. I only ran three miles - and was pretty dead at the end. I did the whole run in just about 29 minutes. And maybe I'm not quite that fast again yet. I did sprint out the last little bit - to see if I could get it to change my max heart rate.

Then this week, I tried again with the base miles. On Monday I had an awesome run. I discovered through ITunes these mixes called Podrunner by dj steveboy. They are all about an hour long - and set to be a certain number of beats per minute. It's not the kind of music I would normally listen to, but since I am very beat driven - I thought I would try it out.

I used crazy logic that first day and decided that since I wanted my heart rate to be at a certain place - I'd pick a song with the same bpm. Only on my way back from the run did I realize that the beats per minute in the song were not referring to heartbeats - but would instead be how many steps per minute I took.

Nevertheless - it worked out. I had a great run - it was a lot of fun and I was able to handle things like inclines better. On other days - as soon as I hit anything resembling an incline - my heart rate would jump. I found I could keep my feet moving at the same pace and still wildly vary the amount of effort I was putting in. It was one of the best runs I've had. I actually felt like I was running - and my watch wasn't beeping at me constantly telling me that my heart rate was too slow or fast.

So then on Tuesday - my monitor reset its zones. So I was excited. Until I checked - it had just reverted them back to what they were before I reset them manually. Ugh. I decided to give it a shot. And the thing was going wonky. I had barely started and it was telling me I was above zone 5. So I said forget it - and just ran. Felt pretty good, and had fun with the podrunner.

Thursday I decided to work on speed a bit. I'd read in Runner's World that I am supposed to be aiming for about 180 foot falls per minute. So - I found a Podrunner that was at 172 (I think). Since I had been doing 154 - it would be a big jump. I also decided to run 4 miles instead of just three - or just for time. Maybe I shouldn't have done both on the same day.

It started out well - but got really hard. I ended up running 3 miles, walking half a mile, and then running in the last half mile to a 180 bpm mix. My legs were definitely more sore - so I think this is a good thing for me.

Today I think I was back to a 160something, but I don't really remember. I was going to do a base miles workout - but it seemed to slow - so I just ran again. I was really pretty tired. So I'm thinking I really do need to throw in recovery days where I can take it easy!!

Anyway, just under two weeks to finish fundraising for the Houston Half. Please donate!!

Looking forward to the new season - so far I have 7 mentees.