I woke up achy. All over. I’m fighting off a sinus infection – again. But the weather is adding to the misery. So, I am taking it easy today. It’s a movie day. So, I’m going to ensconce myself
You all have fun wrecking Western Civilization. Let me know tomorrow how that goes.
I really do love running in the rain. Granted, it means 100% humidity which results in me sweating like a torrential downpour. I don’t care. It also takes me longer to cool down, despite both the low temperature (61 degrees) and the rain to help cool me down. It’s the rain gear. It retains the heat I generate during the run. So, I am dripping all over my chair as I type this. Sweat was dripping off my hat like rain dripping off the roof. And Smokey is trying to get close to me to lick the sweat off me for the salt. Yes, I know. She’s a weird cat. But, she is the kitten – gots to love her.
The only disappointment about today’s run is I couldn’t offer Tina a sweaty hug. She always turns me down. Yeah, it hurts. But I can handle rejection. Really, I can.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go take a shower. And no, those are not tears running from my eyes. It’s just sweat. Yeah. Sweat.
4.29 miles walked. 5.13 miles ran. My heart rate during the runs never hit the red line; that is, it never went above 160. The highest heart rate was 158. During the walks, my heart rate never went into any zone. So, my heart rate recovery time was pretty damn good.
It’s gorgeous outside, and I’m looking forward to a run. However, I’m working on my last cup of coffee. Quite frankly, I’m not going to do anything until I’ve had my requisite volume of coffee. Trust me; you’ll be thankful that I accomplish this one simple task.
I exceeded my maximum heart rate today. I should not go over 164 bpm. I maxed out at 167. And I had a rate over 160 bpm for 7 minutes and 5 seconds. Part of the reason I had a high heart rate was the 120 pushups I did during my stretch before running. The other reason is the warmer weather. So, I need to drink some water to cool down my core. Otherwise, I’m going to experience an elevated heart rate for most of the day. I also tend to be spacy when I’ve redlined for too long.
Past efforts considered I’ve pushed myself harder. I did pull back on my exertion once Runtastic told me I was in Zone 5 (which is the Red Line Zone).
That’s how I feel today. I’ve got nothing. Oh, the run in the light shower was excellent. And my stretch afterward actually felt productive. I’m not feeling it today. Not sure what’s up. It’s not anything awful. I’m just blah.
I have to admit, my body did wake up achy and stiff. The run and the stretch seems to have cleared that up. So, I’m not sure what’s going on. Best to probably go with it. Asking why isn’t an effective problem-solving action. In fact, it creates more problems than it solves. Best to go with asking what is wrong. And what’s wrong is I’m feeling blah. I’ll go with that.
Back in 2012 or 2013, I decided to switch from bicycling to running. I remember my first effort at, well, let’s call it jogging instead of running. If I managed a mile in 20 minutes, I would consider myself lucky. It was an embarrassing affair, to say the least. I would plod along at a jog slower than I could walk. Well, that’s how it felt. At over 250 lbs and decidedly out of shape I was lucky to not have a coronary.
One of the things I adopted early on was measuring my heart rate. The miracle of modern technology allowed me to pace myself. My first heart rate monitor was a Runtasic device that seemed to fail after about 20 minutes, reading my heart rate in half the actual amount. Next came a Fitbit. It worked better than the Runtastic’s device. Unfortunately, it didn’t work with the Runtastic app. And I found the Fitbit app less than adequate. It’s map function, and ability to post to social media was both cumbersome and less than visually appealing.
I now own an Apple Watch. It works with the Runtasic app in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. The watch itself can control the app. So, now I can put my phone in a baggie on rainy days and start and stop Runtastic just with the watch.
Anyway, let me get back to the point I wanted to make. I set goals for myself when I started running. There were two things I wanted to accomplish. One, I wanted to lose weight. In my wildest dreams
As to pace; I set a goal of being able to run a sub-10-minute mile pace. I have done that on several occasions. It is yet to be consistent, but I’m getting there. Here is where the heart rate comes into play. Before I monitored my heart rate, I would push myself as hard as I could. I would be physically exhausted, and I couldn’t bring myself to exercise for several days. The Runtastic app educated me on the proper heart rate I should be maintaining while exercising. As a result, I started to ignore my pace and stick to the heart rate.
Today I am happy to say I have been able to keep myself from going over 160 beats per minute while running a
I’m debating whether I should go running, go shopping, or plop my ass on the couch and veg for the day. To be honest, it’s exhausting! I really hate this adulting thing. Decisions, decisions. I can’t wait for A.I. to finally come online, take over the human race, and make all our decisions for us.
Now if you would get the hell off my lawn it’d be appreciated.
I’m going to brave the thunderstorm that is threatening outside.
