A heart attack waiting to happen??

I went out running yesterday and did a mere 2.75 miles in 30 minutes. Although that is not a good run, it was: my first run in more than 2 weeks, my first run outside in winter…ever, and my first run in snow…ever. So, really I wasn’t that concerned. But running in snow and through snow is a good workout for sure!

However, that’s not what I’m here to discuss. I’m here to discuss my new issue: my unusually high heart rate during my runs. According to my Garmin my average heart rate on my last three runs have been 172, 165, and 171. I spend most of my time in zone 4, peeking into zone 5 a couple times along the way. What’s wrong with this? Well, my average pace is about 10:15, which is not fast, even for me.

Now I realize that a) I’m out of shape, b) it’s the winter so it’s cold outside, and c) I’m running, but should I be concerned? I don’t know, you tell me. The one time I’ve used my Garmin for biking, my average HR was 136, spending most of my time in zone 2. I haven’t tested out the Garmin on swimming yet, but I’d be willing to bet that my HR would be lower as well.

So, tomorrow I’m going out for a run. I’m going to set my Garmin so I stay between a 10:00 – 11:00 pace on a flat course and this is going to serve as a baseline for running in the winter. From there I’ll figure out what to do about my overly excited heart.

Now, back to the show: Ford Ironman World Championship!!

Call me 'Excel’-erella

Believe it or not I’ve actually been busy this past week. Shocking, I know, it’s hard to imagine someone with no classes being busy during finals week, but I was. I had to travel a little for work (which is really boring) and had some end of the semester wrap up meetings. Along with Doctorate program applications…let’s not forget those FUN things.

I’ve officially become a couch potato and don’t feel the least bit bad about it. I’m hoping to start running outside tomorrow (yikes!) with the notion that if it’s over 20*F outside, I’ll survive a run. I’ll really start working out after the new year with my training plan officially starting March 1.

Speaking of training plan…I have been in Excel heaven the last few days creating my training plan using the Triathlete’s Bible and am pretty excited about what I’ve got.

(Side note: you can’t scroll through them because I don’t know how to link them to here without using Google Docs, which just messed up the formats and pretty colors.)

Here’s the ‘title’ page that summarizes my week by week (from trainingbible.com:

The next two tabs look like this, which is the break down of my week:

I’m not quite done with the plan yet, but I’m working on it.

But wait…for the low low price of NOTHING you view another sweet excel file absolutely free here:

This one is probably not as interesting because it’s more about the statistical relationships for my thesis, but I’m pretty pleased with it anyway.

Granted these excel files are not really that special, I’ve made far more impressive ones, but I’m still pretty happy with them!

I’m heading home Saturday for the holidays and a pretty excited to spend time with the family. I promise I’ll be working out soon (especially with my new Garmin!) and will keep you updated.

Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season!

Oh the weather outside is frightful…

I woke up to white. All white. Looking out the window, this is what I saw:

That is my car, completely snowed in. Good thing I didn’t plan on leaving my apartment anytime today! (Sorry Trish, I don’t think even yaktraks would work in this snow! But point taken ma’am!)

So, here is what I did all day:

• Made breakfast in bed for the better half
• Hit up the trainer for an hour watching White Collar
• Watched the funniest show ever: people in tiny cars trying to get out of their parking spots (it’s really fun to watch!).
• Made Puppy Chow and Chicken Alfredo (Ok, BB made the pasta)
• Walked to ‘pick up’ my sister so she could hang out at our place. Since it was cold, snowing and windy, I bundled up:

(You can’t tell if I’m smiling or not!)

Now I’m still trapped in my apartment just hanging out. Not all is lost, I did get some work done! I’m a few steps closer to finishing up the data stuff for my thesis…thank god!

Stay safe and stay warm!

It’s Baaaack!!

  Iowa winter is finally here.

This is what the doppler radar looks in my area:

Just so ya know: Blue=Snow!

Which means that I’ll be spending a lot of time inside (since I’m a snow runner wimp). My bike is set up on it’s trainer so I’ll be spending a lot of time on that…and then ya know, there is the issue of school.

I’ll keep ya posted, stay warm!

Test Run with the Garmin

After one use, the Initial Verdict:

We (I) the jury of ‘endurance’ athletic peers find the Garmin Forerunner 305…GUILTY in the charge 305.1 “Being very user friendly”.

We (I) the jury of ‘endurance’ athletic peers find the Garmin Forerunner 305…GUILTY in the charge 305.2 “Accuracy in the 1st Degree (premeditated)”.

We (I) the jury of ‘endurance’ athletic peers find the Garmin Forerunner 305…GUILTY in the charge 305.3 “Comfortable in the 1st Degree”.

We (I) the jury of ‘endurance’ athletic peers find  SportTrack…GUILTY in the charge 2.1.1 “Being very user friendly”.

We (I) the jury of ‘endurance’ athletic peers find  SportTrack…GUILTY in the charge 2.1.2 “Excellence in Chart Creation”.

We (I) the jury of ‘endurance’ athletic peers find  SportTrack…GUILTY in the charge 2.1.3 “Excellence in Data Management”.

The jury retains the right to change these vertices (if that’s the right word) after the full research regime has occurred. However, until then, the Garmin Forerunner 305 and SportTracks 2.1 are sentenced to manual labor in the form of Maria’s training until further notice.

Comments:

I was pretty pleased with the result of my new toy, in case you haven’t picked up on that. I went for a 3.14 mile run this morning and immediately came back to hook it up to my computer. Using SportTracks (another DC Rainmaker suggestion) this is what I made (pay no attention to the ridiculous numbers, Helga the Hippo is back in full swing):

The best thing is, I even know how to read it! Basically it means that I’m out of shape from what I was a few months ago (like I needed a HR and GPS to figure that one out), but at least I have good tool to use to get back into shape in the coming months!

Tonight or tomorrow I’ll test the HR monitor again with some indoor spinning on my trainer in front of the newest episode of White Collar. But so far, I’m very excited and very pleased with my early Christmas gift!

Christmas Came Early!!

aka my girlfriend REALLY loves me!

Look what Santa (in the form of Britney) got me on black Friday!

It was well worth the large number of people (although things had ‘calmed’ down at 10:30am) since she saved $70 bucks on it!!

I had decided I wanted one for Christmas after reading DC Rainmaker’s many reviews and how-to guides about it (which you can find here, here, here, here and here). I’d say he knows what he’s doing since he’s a triathlon guru if you will. Don’t worry, I did other research and compared it to different models so not all responsibility falls on him…just the good stuff!

I may have carried it around the house on Friday like a stuffed animal and I may have slept with it next to my bed, still in its box. Maybe. But to be fair, Britney’s new camera was on her night stand! (…Yea, we’re weird, but that’s why we’re dating each other!)

I finally opened it yesterday, once I got home from spending the week at my parents (I think I gained the standard 15 thanksgiving pounds by the way). I didn’t want to risk losing any parts and really wanted to savor opening it.

Lucky I was careful to read all the directions that came with it, other wise I wouldn’t have found out that IF I was living in Cali, using the Garmin could give me cancer and cause issues with my pregnancy. But that’s only if I live in California.

The Garmin also came with some nifty instructions about the GPS unit and HR monitor. I think I would have been lost without them:

I haven’t really gotten a good chance to play with it yet, I’m hoping to later today or tomorrow. I was going to last night but the better half and I decided to go camping instead…

…in our living room! We moved the furniture out of the way, put the tent up and dragged a futon mattress in it. Then we had movie night while eating pizza lunchables and clam chowder soup…let the holiday season begin!

I watched Trish and Greyt kick serious butt today from my boring living room in Iowa…sure wish I was there!

I’ll be back after messing with my new toy!

Race Report: Girls on the Run 5K

aka my off season has officially started after this massive butt whooping!

I signed up for this race a few months ago with a friend, we ran it last year together. This year I thought I’d be more prepared and would be able to rock out the course (it’s a fairly hilly course). Well I guess my body had other plans.

We got to the race site and grabbed our bags before walking a mile to the race site. My mom, sister and better half came and Eileen (the friend) brought two of her nieces, one was racing and one was watching. We had about ten minutes to stand around, chat, warm up and stretch before horn was blown (it was a small local race).

 
The runners: Grace, Eileen, and me

 
The support: Britney, Anna, my mom and my sister

Mile 1: 10:14

I stayed with Eileen during at the beginning and I thought we were moving at a fast pace, and I’m sure we would have been but on this hilly course we only pulled out a 10:14 first mile. I was definitely feeling my laziness from the past few weeks but figured I would be able to survive.

 
Me and Eileen surviving mile 1, Grace was way ahead of us.

Mile 2: 9:58

Obviously I stared feeling stronger this mile, I kept picking my feet up and would lean into the hills to get up them. Eileen dropped me (hey, she’s a really in shape 42 year old!!) half way through this mile but I managed to keep her within site. My head started slipping out of the game and I knew the last mile was going to be bad…

Mile 3.1 11:13

…And it was. Somewhere along the way I started falling apart. My head wasn’t in it, my heart wasn’t in it and my foot certainly was not happy with me. I admit I walked a bit because I knew it wouldn’t do any more damage than running really slowly. Just before the 4K mark I caught up with Grace (Eileen's niece) before getting my traditional end of the race strength rush to pass her and finish decently strong….

Finishing… unofficial time: 31:25…not good!

…and tumbling. (Notice my mom rocking the MJ one glove look, my sister was wearing the other one)

…before tumbling to the ground. I was exhausted and apparently ridiculously out of shape. My butt was handed to me on a silver platter at this race. Point taken, running, point taken.

Eileen’s feeling on finishing up hill…sums up my feelings too!

I’m home for the turkey holiday this week and am sure my motivation to work out will be nill (I’ll just try extra hard not to eat AS much as normal), but I will be doing some triathlon homework: Reading the Triathlete’s Training Bible since I’m going to write my training plan for next season.

Have a happy Turkey Day and good luck to those racing in IM COZ!