Cool Runnings!

Lunch - 5 miles on the treadmill.  After a couple days off due to a hectic work schedule, I was looking forward to today to blow off some stress via exercise.  Warmed up a mile at 8:00 pace, then 1 mile at 7:00 pace, 1 mile at 8:00 pace, 1 mile at 7:00 pace, finishing up with another mile at 8:00 pace.  Felt good, foot felt fine, my aerobic capacity felt better than last week, in spite of not running for the first two days of this week.  I think that my fitness is starting to come around.  And my weight is starting to drop, too, which is definitely a good thing.

Lunch - 5 more miles on the treadmill.  Legs were a little sore from the interval work yesterday, so I took it easy for the first 4 miles, then got a bit antsy, and bumped the speed up to 6:00 pace for the last mile.  I was huffing and puffing at the end - I could really see the lack of fitness at a high level, although I felt very good for the first four miles.  So it appears that my aerobic base is coming back, which is definitely a good thing, but I need to increase my aerobic threshold so that 6:00 pace does not feel so hard from a cardiovascular perspecitve.  My legs were doing pretty good, it was just my lungs that had a hard time keeping up.  Walked around for about 5 minutes to cool down afterwards.  Foot feels good.

AM - 4 miles outside in a balmy 77 degrees.  Felt gorgeous outside.  I ran without my GPS watch, so I was pretty much guessing on my pace the entire time, and was trying to just run easy.  It felt good, I probably ran at about 8:00 pace - maybe the first mile at about 8:30 pace as I was warming up.

Lunch - back on the treadmill again.  I talked with my brother-in-law this weekend about interval training and decided to tackle it a bit differently.  Make the easy portion very easy, make the hard portion harder, which also helps the heart to learn when to work hard and when to rest (comparatively speaking).  So I ran the easy portions at 6.5 mph, and the hard portions at 10 mph.  I did 2 minutes slow, then 1 minute fast for 36 minutes, then finished with 2 minutes slow and 2 minutes fast.  I wore my HR monitor chest strap today, and it was interesting to see the difference in HR between the easy and hard portions.  Given my (still) lack of aerobic fitness, I would expect the difference to increase as my fitness improves.  Average HR during the easy portions was about 150, average HR during the hard portions was around 175, although during the last interval, my HR spiked to 188.  This is pretty typical for me - my exercise HR has always been higher than "average", and I don't worry about it.  In any case, I didn't feel any differently when my HR was that high.  However, it will be interesting to see both those numbers drop down as my fitness increases.  Total of approx. 5.25 miles.

Lunch - ran outside today (but made sure to wear sunblock this time).  It was a balmy 94 degrees when I set out.  I thought it would be quite nice compared to what I have been running in, but a couple miles into the run, I started feeling fairly warm.  I tried to consciously slow down, but I don't think it worked - I wasn't wearning my Garmin, so I was just running at a pace that felt comfortable.  Slogged out the rest of the run (5.1 miles total) and then walked around to cool down, plus took an extra long cool shower.  I think I may have overdone it a little today, not from the speed or effort perspective, but form the running outside in the heat perspective.  I probably got the beginnings of some heat exhaustion.  Fingers got a little bit tingly too, so I made sure to take in some cold fluids asap to try and cool down the core.  That helped quite a bit.  I will have to be a bit more aware of the weather tomorrow and maybe stick with the dreadmill for another week or two until the weather can cool down some more.  I don't want to end up with heat stroke . . .

Lunch - 5 miles outside again.  It is amazing what a difference just a few degrees makes.  Today it was about 91 degrees when I headed out.  Of course, I was also trying hard to make sure I took it easy, and I also took a brief walking break at the 4 mile mark while I walked under a bridge (hence the 5 miles instead of 5.1 miles), but today felt much better.  None of the symptoms today that I felt yesterday.  I'll keep an eye on the weather tomorrow to decide whether to hit the dreadmill or go outside.  Maybe I'll take it easier tomorrow and only do 3-4 miles instead of 5.  Average pace of 8:00/mile.

Lunch - 4 miles outside.  Temperature was about 89 degrees.  Not bad, but somehow it felt hotter than yesterday.  The route was actually about 4.5 miles, but I ran the first 4, then walked the last 1/2 mile to cool down.  It helped quite a bit.  Average pace about 8:00/mile.

Lunch - ran on the treadmill today, because I forgot my sunglasses. Warmed up 1.5 miles at 8:00 pace, then did a 3 mile progressive tempo run. Started out at 7:00 pace for the first mile, increased to 6:40 pace for the second mile, and increased to 6:20 pace for the last mile. Last quarter mile was at 6:00 pace. Total time for the tempo run was 20:00 even.

Lunch - 4.1 miles outside.  It was gorgeous - about 84 degrees.  The wind was blowing from the east, and since I was doing an out-and-back going east on Washington, the out portion was a bit slower because the wind was in my face the entire time.  Probably averaged about 8:00/mile out and about 7:30/mile back.  Good run.

Lunch - 4.3 miles today.  I ran a different route today - north on Priest up past the Phoenix Zoo to McDowell, then east on McDowell for about 1/4 mile, then back to work.  It was a bit warmer than yesterday - about 91 degrees, but it didn't feel too bad.  Again, averaged about 8:00/mile out (most of it was uphill) and about 7:30/mile coming back, most of it being downhill.