Woodlands Fit - Week Eight

***edited to add picture courtesy of Coach Bill. Thank you!****


Total Miles: 5.91
Total Time: 58:37
Avg. HR: 179

Avg Pace: 9:55

Mile 1: 9:38
Mile 2: 9:37 (30 sec walk break)
Mile 3: 10:00
Mile 4: 10:42 (ate gu, 45 sec walk break, dropped mp3!!)
Mile 5: 10:25
Mile .91: 8:12/ 9:03 pace

I think I should have eaten the Gu earlier because I definately felt it kick in about 10 mins after I ate it. Next time I'll try it at mile 3. Or maybe I should eat one before I start and then one at half way. Not sure what would be best.

We had a great talk given by Kimberly Hager on Heart Rate Training. This is something that I have been interested in since beginning to run. As many of you know, my mother died of heart disease two years ago at the young age of 62. She suffered for many years before that. Watching her walk that long and painful journey was the catalyst for my commitment to fitness. As well, during my last pregnancy, I developed a strange problem with my heart. It would rise to 225 just by walking around. I had many tests and several doctors watching over me, but the cause was never determined. The final analysis was that my hormones were causing the problem. (just what every woman loves to hear!) After Boo was born, my HR normalized and I was able to come off of the medications that I was on during my pregnancy.

There is a ton of information on the internet, in books, etc. I enjoyed hearing Kimberly's opinion on Heart Rate training and agree with her that it should be used more by us all as a tool to determine if we are working ourselves too hard and not allowing for enough recovery.

With Kimberly's information in hand, I looked over my last few months of workouts and realized that I am WAY overtraining. Most of my runs have been between 75% and 85%. According to Kim, my Tuesday and Thursday runs should be in zone 4. Mine have been notoriously in zone 5. My long runs have been in zone 4-5 as well and they should be in zone 3. I must admit I have been feeling the "pressure" to keep up with my group, but having seen this information, I have decided to scale it back a bit and take the HR training more seriously. I know that this will be a real mental challenge for me. I will not like slowing down, but I believe that this is the healthiest way to go.

Remind me of this, Hrunner, when I am running too fast!!

To be more exact, my goal for long runs should be to have a hr of no more than 164 bpm. That is quite a difference from my usual 179ish.

Another goal this week is to review my resting HR. Last time I measured it was 18 months ago. I'd like to see if it has dropped from 54.

I met 90% of my training goal this week, missing Thursday because of a stomach bug.

Total Miles for the Week: 13.5 miles

Weight 124.0 (blame it on the stomach bug)