Long runs on treadmills and the first week done...

I finished the first week of training with my 13 km long run, on a treadmill because the weather outside is frightful. (Cue music...) A shade over 13 km in 1:12:24 (5:34 min/km) with an average heartrate of 157, according to my Garmin, which is reduced to a heart rate monitor during treadmill runs. This is quite a lot lower than last week's 163, which I think I can attribute to issues you have to fight running outdoors - wind and topography, as well as the slightly slower pace. I ran today with the 'mill on a steady 1° incline, however the hills around here are appreciably greater than 1°.

Weekly totals: 33:2 km running and 15.9 km rowing. A good week.

Speed run Friday

Speed repeats completed on a treadmill at the Sportsplex - 12 x 400m with 90 sec easy running between each and a mile warmup and warmdown. My average heart rates by interval were:

1 - 163
2 - 162
3 - 160
4 - 158
5 - 162
6 - 161
7 - 164
8 - 165
9 - 166
10 - 168
11 - 168
12 - 167

I didn't really feel tired during the repeats, though it's obvious that after finding my groove I did start to labour toward the end. Fun stuff.

I'm tired and it's time for a beer and the Battlestar Galacitica season opener.

Rowing, rowing, rowing...

Did my cross-training row last night, and for the first time used my Garmin strictly as a heart rate monitor:

5 min easy (ave HR 105),
10 min med-hard (ave HR 131),
5 min easy (ave HR 123),
10 min med-hard (ave HR 142)
5 min easy (ave HR 123). Total

Total distance: 7.98 km.

It's the first time I've ever measured my heart rate during rowing, so the numbers are interesting. I have read that the maximum heart rate varies from exercise to exercise, but this is the first time I've seen it on myself. There is no way that I was rowing at maximum exertion, however just from perceived exertion, the 10-minute sprints (at ~ 25 SPM) felt as hard as a 5:30 min/km run to me, which would have put my running HR somewhere in the high 160's.

(I watched George Bush's final address during the first half of this exercise. Mayhaps I was feeling spriritually lighter?)

Oh, and for what it's worth, the Garmin said that I traveled 24 m during the 35 minute workout.

Cool.

First tempo run...

Just a quick update - ran my first tempo run of the new training regime last night, on the treadmill at the Sportsplex because the roads are still pretty icy and it's jeezely cold. 10 km, (3.5 @ 6:00 min/km, 5 @ 5 min/km, 1.5 easy), finishing in 54:01. Felt good, but tiring. I didn't wear my HR monitor, but I did some spot checks on the machines grip one and I was in the mid 140's throughout the first section, and climbed from the low 150's quickly to mid 160's in the second, until the final half-km when it began to climb again, to around 170 by the end.

Tiring, but fun. Well, as fun as a treadmill usually gets.

Running update and my "friend"

My running this past week completely fell apart owing to a visit from an old friend and an old "friend".

First, Wednesday's scheduled speed intervals didn't happen as the weather came down on us hard - icing the roads, glazing the outdoor track I intended to use and then, argh, forcing my gym to close early so I couldn't even try things out on the dreadmill. In retrospect I should have just called it a cross-training day and hit the rowing machine, it's in my basement after all, but I figured I'd get up early and hit the treadmill at the gym. That's when my "friend" showed up.

Insomnia.

Insomnia and I have a long history, and in the last year it's kind of come back. Usually it's stress-induced, but sometimes, like this time I think, it just happens. In any case, I didn't sleep a wink Wednesday night and got up the next morning and, preparing for the worst, went to work and had one of the most productive days I've had in months. Weird.

Productivity at work, where I'm sitting on my ass in front of a computer is one thing, I wasn't going to attempt speed intervals. Then, that night a friend, who was in town on business, called and he and I and another old friend went out for beers. At 2:00 AM I dragged my butt in the door and had a great sleep - sleeping in a bit and going to work a bit late. Working as a scientist with a computer instead of a lab, I can do that some days.

Friday night I managed a 7 km easy run, untimed, just to get out and get some air and Saturday I hit the gym for a good weight and ab session.

This morning (Sunday), I ran my last pre-FIRST training run, as the 18-week program for the Bluenose Half starts next week. I figured I'd reprise last Sunday's 13 km run, and managed to meet the target pace (5:33). I set the Garmin to lap count every kilometre and got this:

5:32 (ave HR 151 bpm)
5:34 (ave HR 160 bpm)
5:31 (ave HR 154 bpm)
5:36 (ave HR 161 bpm)
5:32 (ave HR 169 bpm)
5:34 (ave HR 167 bpm)
5:25 (ave HR 164 bpm)
5:28 (ave HR 163 bpm)
5:29 (ave HR 163 bpm)
5:34 (ave HR 165 bpm)
5:44 (ave HR 166 bpm)
5:34 (ave HR 167 bpm)
5:13 (ave HR 171 bpm) - the big finish!

I finished in 1:11:47, at an average pace of 5:31 (owing to the big finishing spurt, I guess) at an average heart rate of 163.

Just looking at this, I see that my heart rate increased a fair bit over the past few kms, even aside from the "big finish" final km. Like all routes around Dartmouth, it was hilly, which shows up in both the km paces as well as the exertion, particularly in the first and last few kms, but I can tell that I was tiring in the final few kms, both from the numbers and from the feeling I had on the road.

Hopefully this bodes well for the training program that truly begins this week. With any luck, visits from my "friend" will be few between now and May.

Happy running!

A ripping row

Just completed a hard row - 30 minutes broken down thusly:

• 5 min easy (~ 21 strokes per minute)
• 1 min hard (25 - 26 spm)
• 1 min easy
• 2 min hard
• 1 min easy
• 3 min hard
• 1 min easy
• 4 min hard
• 1 min easy (thank gawd!)
• 3 min hard
• 1 min easy
• 2 min hard
• 1 min easy
• 1 min hard
• 3 min easy/cool down

Total 6.79 kms.

Phew. Tomorrow is my first set of intervals, 12 x 400m. This should be interesting.

Yesterday's long run

Ran 13 km in 1:12:49 in relatively nice weather, but crappy road conditions. The snow from the New Year's Eve/Day blizzard was still around on the sidewalks, though they had been "cleared" by the city maintenance people. I think the problem is that the sidewalks in many places are so badly frost-heaved and broken that they set the blades on the blowers pretty high, resulting in about three or five cenitimetres of loosely-packed snow in many places, which makes for a tremendous workout for the muscles in the lower legs. My calves are still sore 24 hours later.

That said, the weather was lovely - cloudy, -8° C with a light wind - great winter running weather. Perfect, I think.

My time was a little slower than the target, 5:37 min/km vs. 5:33. But since it was my first attempt at a long run at that kind of speed, and with sub-perfect road conditions to boot, I think it was a great run. A very nice way to start the running year.

10 K race test

In an effort to gauge my current level of fitness, and to be honest partly out of morbid curiosity, I ran a 10 K "race" yesterday. The results were pretty ugly all things considered, but pretty much along the lines of what I expected. I did the loop of lakes Banook and Mic Mac, cutting through Shubie Park and along the trail and boardwalk - a semi-regular part of my long runs. Unfortunately it's quite a hilly run and in spots was quite slippery, and so not an entirely accurate gauge, but I shall rerun it again every few months and see where my times go.

For the record, the 10K portion of the run was completed in 52:34 and my average heart rate was an astounding 174 bpm.

I'm still assessing whether or not to run the full marathon at the Bluenose in May. This little test it part of the assessment.

Missing a run isn't everything... right?

I had an absolute crap sleep Saturday night and missed my Sunday long run. I had thrown around the idea of running long this morning, but I slept in until 5:30 and only had time for a short 6 km. It was a great run, but I still want to get a long run in, so if all goes well tomorrow and T's schedule allows, I'll run late tomorrow.

I've been running 3 km tempos with a 1.5 km warmup / warmdown on either end. I can't remember exactly when or how I determined my tempo paces, but the Garmin had 5:00 - 5:10 set for the goal pace, and that seems to be working out well. I think that I'll start running two of these a week and will increase the mileage a little - maybe 4 km on the main part of the run.