My first attempts at heart rate training. . .

Hey all . . .  I hope you had a great weekend!  I think some of those very few of you that read this blog found me from Katie.  If you follow Katie you know she's been doing 80/20 training and the 80% is following heart rate training.  I also follow Stephanie and she's getting her feet wet with HR training too. 

The idea here is to keep your HR at or below you MAF (maximum aerobic function).   This stops your body from going into anaerobic function.   Take what I say with a grain of salt because I'm not totally sure I understand, nor have I read very much in detail about this.  However, I look at this at training your heart.  :)   The idea is that over time you will be able to run faster within you MAF heart rate.  My heart rate is 148.  

180 (base number)
- 37 (my age)
+5 (I have been training for 2+ years with improvement and without injury)
_____
148

I will admit that I have to run really really slowly . . . kind of a wog if you will (walk/jog ha ha ).   And I read this is normal.  The first mile will be the fastest cause once your HR is up, it's up!  Some people struggle with how slow you have to go.  The first time I tried this, I wanted to see just how low I could keep my HR and still kind of run . . . I was at 160.  I thought "holy cow, 148 is going to be impossible!"  I was sure 148 was my number.  I double checked and yup, that's my number. 

So. . . here's my first HR run where I walked or sloooooooowed way the heck down when I went over 148. 

My avg pace for 4 miles was 13:20!   In general my avg pace is 11:00 - 11:20!   I did this in the town where  I work, so that meant lots of little hills.  Hills really pop up your heart rate!  I also learned that breathing deep, slow and long really helps the heart rate.  The time went by so fast because I was doing something different and challenging. 

The next day I did the exact same thing.  I also got smart and set my Garmin to beep when I went over 148.  But I had to watch it drop cause it did not alert me when I was back in range. 

So this time I had an avg of 147 bpm.  I had the same overall pace.  I think I got smarter about when I had to walk.  I learned what I had to do to get my rate to drop.  Sometimes my heart rate didn't want to drop very easily and I flat out had to walk really slow.  So I learned a few things about controlling it, but gosh it's hard.  It's almost impossible to find that steady pace / rhythm that keeps the heart rate steady.  I wondered if that was because of the hills? 

So the next day was Saturday and I woke up with some horrible sinus/allergy headache.  Not sure which but if I moved my head too fast I felt whatever was inside move.  Yikes!   That slowly went away and I decided I could do a 3 mile HR run.  My hubby came along and I warned him that it might be tedious.  I also tried not to talk to him too much.  It was tempting cause the run was *so* easy, but talking does inhibit my breathing and therefore the HR goes up!

So just a hair faster with 13:10 pace. . . on flat ground.  I really thought the pace would be a bit more different.   However, I did keep my HR at 146, so maybe if I had pushed it to have an avg of 148 I'd have had a faster pace.  But it's so up and down. . . and beep beep beep goes the Garmin!  Plus I'd rather not have too much time over the MAF range.  So I was happy with this.  

Where is this all going?  I have no idea.  I don't even know if I will keep doing this.  It's fun right now, but every run takes more time.  I'd like to try it for a month to see if I get a pace improvement withing my MAF.  But I don't know if I have the patience.   I haven't made any decisions.  

I was thinking of doing the 80/20 running that Katie is doing as I mentioned above.  You are suppose to have 80% of the *time* you run at as an easy run.  The other 20 can be speedwork.  Not sure I really want to sit down and figure out the time math.  But I thought if all my solo runs were HR runs, and my weekend run with my husband was "normal" then maybe that would be close enough to an 80/20 ratio? 

On Sunday I did run with my husband.  This was my 5th day in a row of running. And even though the previous 4 were "easy" (the first was that attempt at how slow can I go which didn't keep me in my MAF range so I didn't post it here). . . . that's still miles on the legs.  So I was a bit done for on Sunday.  I had that head issue again in the morning, but didn't really realize it till we started running.  Every step I took made my head pound.  Thankfully that went away in the first mile.  I had to take a brief walk break in the last mile. . . 

Those are my splits and my avg HR was 167. .  which is way out of my MAF range.   But again 80/20 right?  We'll see!

I just thought I'd share my experience here.  Keeping your HR withing aerobic function is suppose to be good for the body.  It's also suppose to encourage more fat loss I think.  I'm all for that!   I have read that there's a "junk" heart rate that doesn't do your body any good.  So at the very least this is shaking up my HR.  It's also easier on my body since the pace is slower.   But ultimately I'm not sure where this I'm going to go with all of this yet.  Does anyone else have experience with heart rate training? 

10 day cleanse results!

I haven't been posting because I've been waiting for my cleanse to be over.

On Sat April 9th, the hubs and I started the Advocare 10 Day Cleanse.  You can do this as part of the 24 Day Challenge or you can do it solo.  As you know in Jan we did do the full challenge.  The recommendation is to cleanse every 90 days.  Some people do the challenge every 90 days.  We have been eating pretty much like you do on the 24 day challenge 90% of the time, so we just did the cleanse.    I'm going out of town next week and we found 10 days where we didn't have any events.

The consists of 10 days of clean eating.  You *eat*.  You don't starve yourself.  You eat three meals a day and 2-3 snacks.  It's all clean, avoiding things like dairy, sugar, alcohol, condiments, bad carbs. . . we eat very little carbs.  You can have whole grain breads, but we don't. I know for myself that I will have better success if I don't.  But I do eat grain like quinoa every day.  Since I run, I really need the carbs to keep that energy level up.  I eat three snacks as I have that extra/optional one after dinner, before bed.  That's my snacky time and I just can't give that one up.  But snacks are clean: fruits and nuts.  That kind of thing.

My start weight was 188.2.
My hubs start weight was 207.8

My final weight this morning was 182.6.  That's a loss of 5.6 lbs.  I'm happy with that.  I wanted more, but I did the best I could and this is what my body gave me.  I lost half inch off of: hips, waist and both thighs, for a total of 2 inches lost.  I really want to see the 170's soon so I'm going to keep up with the clean eating and see if I can get there before I go to KY next week. 

My hubs however ended up in ONDERLAND!!  His final was 199.8.  I don't think he's been in the 100's in his adult life.  He was much larger before I met him and lost weight prior to meeting me in 2006.  But I know that he has always been in the 200's the whole time we've been together.  He's pretty excited!  He also lost a total of 2 inches: 1 from both the chest and hips.  He's kind of shrinking before my eyes.  I think he's loving it.  He was resistant to any kind of "cleanse" or limiting food groups/eating before.  But he's loving the reaction he's getting from people and I know he feels better.

The thing I love the most about the cleanse and clean eating in general is that my weight is more stable.  I don't have wild fluctuations of going up a few pounds in *one* day.  Here's my daily weight since the start of the cleanse (from the bottom up!)

You will notice that my fat % went up.   But gosh darn, those monitors are something else.  Any change in hydration can affect it.  It seems to take much more than 10 days to see results.  So I'm not too worried about that.   I've been stuck since Saturday morning at the exact *same* weight.  That's becoming a bummer.  And even more of a bummer is that it's my TOM starting today.  So I suspect I will fly up 3 lbs in a day or two from that bloat.  That's one thing clean eating can't control.  The bloat from Aunt Flo!  Ha!  

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I thought since I haven't posted in a while, that I'd share some images from this weekend.

First - my horse, Eli is lame.  I don't know what he did and I don't know if it's related to his neck arthritis.  But there's no riding right now and I don't know when I'll call the vet yet.  I leave town next Wed so I may address it when I get back, unless it gets worse.  This is a sad face selfie.  I was excited to try a horse selfie with my new phone because the front camera is wide angle.  It's much easier to fit a horse head in the photo!

On Saturday I took my nephew to his baseball practice.  His Dad was working and his sister was sick, so his Mom couldn't take him.  I love that boy! He's so funny and so well behaved. 

He's a true farm boy and he loves working with his dad in the field (his dad does field work for someone when not working his *real* job @ John Deere).  So on the way home from baseball practice we stopped to check on my husband in the field.  Have I mentioned on here that my husband farms?  Probably not, cause in reality farming sucks and it sucks all your money down the drain. 

Sunday morning, before my husband went to the field, we went for a run. Whew - he's just too fast for me.  I really have to up my speed to run with him.  I know it's good for me, but as summer comes and the temperatures go up, it's getting harder.  I hate hot weather running.  But I sure am proud of myself when I'm done and see that speedy pace! :)

On Sunday, my nephew was at my Mom's house and she sent me this photo.  She said he noticed the tractor a mile away and starting getting excited that it was my hubby.  I thought this photo was about the sweetest thing I've seen in a while. 

Hope all is well with everyone that reads this!  Post a comment once and while and say hi! :)

A fun 4 mile run!!!

The *only* time I've really ran with someone and we purposefully ran together and stayed together for the whole race (with limited walking at water stops and such) was during the KY Derby Half Marathon in 2014.  It was my very first half and I ran it with a friend.  We had never ever ran together before so I had no idea what to expect.  But we stayed together and finished together and it was fun.

So yesterday morning (Saturday) it was kind of sort of misty outside, but it was a cooler temperature and overcast - perfect running weather.   I didn't *want* to run as I had done a brief 2 miles on Friday after lunch and I was just tired.  I thought about taking the day off.  My husband was talking some nonsense about going to the gym.  What?!  He's a new runner and I think he hasn't quite figured out what *good* running weather is.  I said if you run here at home, I'll run with you.  Can we stick together?   My husband runs a pace around 10:00 - 10:15 I would say, but I also think he's still finding his pace as he's only been running consistently since January.   My current pace seems to be around 11:15, maybe 11:00 if I'm having a good run.  Could we meet in the middle?  And if so for how long?  I told my husband that it's good for him to do a run at an easy pace once and a while.

So off we went and I didn't want to run any mile (or much of any distance) faster than 10:30 cause I knew I couldn't hold it long.  We planned 4 miles and so I needed to find a rhythm and stay there.  The first mile was easy.  The second wasn't all that bad either.  I thought "if we can make it to the halfway point and still be together I'll be impressed".   We turned around at mile 2.  I hadn't eaten anything that morning but I had a pack of Gu with me.  I didn't take it and that was a bit of a mistake. I did take it around 2.5 and that was a bit late.  I was starting to struggle and when mile 3 hit I was pondering walking and let my husband run off a head of me.  But I pushed through.  At 3.5 we turned the corner to home and I was groaning.  My husband told me I could do this!  I stayed strong and we finished 4 miles together!

They say the best way to increase your pace is to run with someone faster than you. :)   It sure does help.  I told my husband I'd like to do it again on a regular basis, provided this wasn't a fluke.   Next time I won't run 2 miles the day before.

We got home right as fedex was delivering my Advocare order.  I truly believe that Advocare has really improved our health and our life.  My husband is the smallest he's been since I've known him and probably the smallest he's been in his adult life.   I love the products so much!

Notice our matching headbands?   We got them last weekend when we were in Springfield at Scheel's.  They are Junk brand headbands.  Technically both are unisex.  But mine is stretchy and his ties in the back.  My husband sweats buckets easily so I think he's learned that headbands are amazing for keeping sweat out of your eyes.

So 10:41 pace!  That's pretty good for me for 4 miles.  I was running well last summer before I got sick and I hope to get back to that again.  It was fun to run with someone else the *entire* time.  However, I can't talk and run.  They say you should be able to but there's just no way.  No matter how slow I run, my breathing sucks and I sound like I'm in respiratory distress.   I can never hold a conversation.  Just not possible.  I think it would be fun to run and chat, but right now I'll just take running with someone else.  It made the time fly by!

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I was in a workweek hustle this week and I kicked some butt!  I'm really not sure how because I have a desk job and it takes effort to reach 10k steps a day.   So I'm really not sure how I slammed this one, but I did. Yet another reason I was tired yesterday and wanted to have a day off.  Maybe today will be that day.  It's hard for me to convince myself to take a rest day.  Especially on a weekend.  It's different if I've been at work all day.

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 I can't stop taking photos of Doughnut the barn kitty.  She's so pretty but she's not all that nice. She's a typical female that only likes you when she wants to like you.  She purrs so loudly but then will just randomly squeal and bite you.  I guess I should be glad she's not super friendly cause I'd be cuddling her all the time and I wouldn't get anything done at the barn. 

Pre-Race Update

I'm 3 days out from the Hot Chocolate 15K.  Training wise I'm doing really well.

I had my last long run this past Saturday.  What a hot mess that was.  I woke up to a dense fog advisory on my phone. I rolled over and thought "let the sun burn the fog away".  I couldn't really relax enough so I got up 20-30 mins later.  No fog!  Told my mom when I was leaving (she was going to pick me up in town at the end of my run).  I over dressed.  At mile 1 I was ripping off my hat and jacket.  I was sweating as the sun was on my back.  At the hour mark (mile 5-ish) I was freezing cause I was in the shade.  Suddenly I realized there really wasn't any sun and the fog was rolling in.  WHAT?  Usually the fog happens in the morning and the sun burns it away.  So I had 3 more miles (about 30 mins) of running in cold damp fog.  My hair was so wet I was surprised I didn't have icicles.   I was so happy to be done and so super surprised to see my pace.

So Saturday we pick up our packets and on Sunday we do the run.  And the forecast is all rain on Sunday (starting Sat night).  So I'm freaked.  I've been caught in the rain before.  In the summer.  I haven't chosen to run a full 9.3 miles in the rain.  I don't have any waterproof running clothes. :(   I'm not really sure what we will do.  This is my third year running the 15k.  This is my hubby's 2nd year running the 5K.  I want to run. But I don't want to be miserable.  We are having unseasonably warm temps so maybe it'll be ok, but if it's truly raining I'm not sure.

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Life has been crazy busy.  I had a few days home alone when my hubby went to a tractor pull in Mississippi.   I enjoyed that.  I didn't even talk to him while he was gone.  I didn't want to know if he was drinking.  I'm not saying he's an alcoholic.  I'm saying it's caused problems and I wish he just didn't drink period.  There are people that don't drink a sip. That would make our life easier cause right now our marriage is rocky as hell. 

Last night we went with my parents to the St Louis Zoo Wild Lights.  It was a nice night (55 degrees) and the lights were beautiful.  You could see the Sea Lions, the new Polar Bear and the Penguins/Puffins.  The sea lions were really really hard to see.  The walkway you walked through was lighted and the water the sea lions were in was not.  You mostly saw your own reflection.  The polar bear's home was also dark.  We got to see him for a few minutes before he went and laid down to sleep behind a rock out of the eyes of the public.  We got lucky there.  The penguins were fun though, even though no one was swimming or moving around much (last time they were and that was a blast). 

I wore my new tall boots with my skinny jeggings that I never wear.   I wish the boots were a bit taller (the pains of being 5'10") and I got blisters.  Probably not the best idea to wear them the first time to walk through the zoo.  Oh well! :)   And that's some hot chocolate with Bailey's.   Yum!

I'm gaining weight and was 191 earlier this week.  Not cool.  I'm trying not to stress.  I know I will do the cleanse or the full 24 day challenge after the new year.  I'm just trying to say in the 180's till then.  189.4 this morning! :)  It's a tough time of year.  I'm staying active and trying not to stress too much.  Long runs always seem to bump my weight up for a few days anyways.  So having 7, 8, 9.3 three weekends in a row is working against me. 

Weekend runs

I wasn't sure how long I would take off after the 15K.   Thursday night Roger and I were on our way sell a piece of furniture via a FB yard sale site.  Not sure if that is any safer than Craigslist, but at least I can snoop around the buyer's FB page first.  I was really avoiding Craigslist as lately I've heard too many stories of people being beat up, robbed and murdered via transactions.  On our way, as I was driving, I actually felt the urge to run.  My legs wanted to run!  Who am I?  I'm surprised I felt that.

I was off work on Friday so that morning I went for a run.  A short 3 mile run.  I was hoping my knee wouldn't hurt, but it did.  And worse than usual. This is discouraging.  I'm trying to think back to a few of my treadmill runs before my race. I don't think my knee ever hurt on the treadmill.  I don't remember.  But I might suck it up and do 3 miles on the treadmill sometime soon to test out the theory.  This 3 miles was much harder than I thought it would be. 

I was discouraged by how much I slowed down, but I had no choice.  I probably should have walked. But I have good news!  The running dynamics from my heart rate monitor worked.  I didn't do anything differently.  But maybe I had it on upside down during my race.  I knew there was a right and wrong way.  But I have to admit the shape is similar to my Polar HR monitor and I always wore that one a certain way.  In this case, that is upside down for the Garmin.  So maybe in my nervous-early-morning-it's-freezing-cold-haze I put it on upside down.  Here are the stats from Friday's run:

and here is the information from Garmin's site about those stats. 

I always read that 180 spm is the *sweet* spot for running. I am surprised at how close I am.  I'm also surprised at my vertical oscillation.  Since it says taller runners usually have a higher oscillation.  Plus I'm just an all around sucky average runner.   I expected I'd be in a lower category for that and not in the top purple range!   We'll see how that balances out as I move forward. 

I took Saturday off and on Sunday morning I put on some old crappy shoes that I don't even remember owning.   It was wet and sloppy outside and I really want to try my Reebok ATVs for running (just once) but wasn't ready to get them messed up even in the slightest.   These shoes I wore were clearly NOT meant for running but I had to see what my knee would do.  It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't as bad.  Of course I only did 2 miles. So the verdict is undetermined. 

When I bought my Under Armour Cold Gear outfit I found a Nike shirt that I really wanted.  But gosh the clothing is so expensive I just couldn't justify another shirt.  And I really wanted a *matching* outfit.  So I didn't get it.  But as luck would have it I got it online on Black Friday from Sports Authority. 

I fell for the pink/grey combo.  I love both colors right now. I'm kind of obsessed with grey actually.  But I loved how the sleeves were different.  And I gotta say it's hard to take a selfie and get the sleeves in the photo! :)   This shirt is really tight.  Of course I heard that you want it to be really tight in the winter.  It might have been a bit too warm for the weather on Sunday.  I got a bit sweaty and I had to have my hubby help get the shirt off of me.   I was just stuck to the shirt.  Lol.   I hope we get some cold weather that works for my clothing cause this stuff isn't cheap!!!!

Oh and another score for the Garmin - it successfully uploaded my 2 mile run via wifi.  So maybe I am finally getting this thing configured correctly.   Whew.   

Garmin take 2

*happy dance* I got Garmin's crazy Express Fit to see my watch.  OMG.  This was stressing me out.  I think mostly cause I was wondering why the hell I was so stupid that I couldn't get this working.  I had posted on Garmin's forum.  Thankfully someone said "are you sure you have the right version" and attached a link.   Well. . . . isn't that interesting?  My file said ExpressFit_20 and the one he linked me to said ExpressFit_201.   WTH?  So I took *everything* Garmin off my computer.  There was a plug in I had to install to manually upload my run since I couldn't get this Express Fit working.   I rebooted.  I installed the 201 file.   I was holding my breath and that stupid "please close Express Fit" message did not appear.  So maybe this is a different version.  It still would not open after the install until I did a reboot.   But when the computer came back up, I opened it up . . . I attached the watch. . . BAM!  It saw my watch.  Whew!   So I set up the wifi stuff through the program. But I have no idea how to tell if that works.  There are issues with that from what I read, but I couldn't even get that far.   So I guess I need to go on a run to see if I can upload something over wifi.  I gotta say this shit is *not* intuitive in the least.  Considering my technical background I wonder how some people work with this thing.  Cause I wanna pull my hair out. 

I did try to figure out what link I followed that gave me that 20 file.  I thought it was the link in the manual.  I went there, but it was linked to the 201 file.    I don't know. . . I think someone put a bad file out there and has updated the download.  That's what I think.  Cause I was going to be all up in Garmin's face if they had the wrong link in the manual. lol 

Now I still have to figure out what's going on with the HR monitor. Maybe. . . just maybe. . . I didn't have it on right.  That's a possibility.  A small one, but it was like 5:30 am when I put the thing on.  I had other things on my mind, so it's possible.  I shall try another run before I annoy the people at Garmin any further. 

Let's talk about GPS accuracy.  In my mind Garmin and GPS are synonymous. TomTom? Who are they?  You know what I mean?  Garmin is like a household word. Now I was having serious issues with my previous phone.  It was Samsung Galaxy S2 and I used Runkeeper to track all of my running to this point.   I had a refurbished replacement S2 and the GPS was whacked.  Totally.   It would give me mileage and the longer the run, the more free mileage I got.  The previous S2 was very reliable.   I got a S4 last month and it's been much more reliable.  Maybe not quite accurate. . . . like my path didn't follow roads exactly, but close enough.  Maybe I had unrealistic expectations for my Garmin.  That's possible . . . but. . . .I expected if I ran ON a street in downtown St Louis, then my path would be rendered *on* that street.   It's not living up to those expectations. . . 

So. . . I consider that to be inaccurate.  How about you?  There is chatter about this online.  So I'm not the only one with this problem, clearly.   But maybe this is why my watch said I ran 9.4 when I really ran 9.3.   Now that's splitting hairs.  I'm fine with 0.1 difference.  With that crappy S2 I could run 5 miles and it would tell me 5.25 or more.  That was not cool.   I mentioned this issue in my emails with Garmin and they told me they posted a statement and are addressing it.  We shall see.  Lesson of the day: don't buy the newest device.   *eye roll*