imfatsoirun

My own Turkey Trot 5k Thursday morning I ran around the lake near my house again for a 5k before Thanksgiving. I did a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5k last year with the wife and I like the concept of 'earning' your meal. I however did not want to endure the crowds for the run and decided instead to take a calm run around home. I felt good the whole time on this run and didn't even take a walk break at the mile marks. This is good for multiple reasons but mainly because that is how I started to run after Grandma's marathon and I was training for Twin Cities marathon. The walk breaks are a reward but if I don't need them or I feel hardcore I don't take them. Granted my training for Twin Cities (my second marathon in a year) was sub-par I did gain that advantage to not 'rely' on the mile walk breaks. Heart rate was at 4.8 by Garmin standards which is better than the last time I ran. Anyways not much else to talk about turkey day was good and I felt good after getting my run in. My hamstring did cramp later in the probably from lack of water and stretching.

Here's a link to the motivation speech I've made into an alarm. Sometimes it works.

Monday AFTERNOON run. The ambition that I had to run last night or early this morning was quashed because of my procrastination in homework. I stayed up until about 11pm to write three papers for my schooling, so no run last night. Then my intention was to get up at 4:45 or 5am and go for my run then. 0445 rolled around and I shut off that alarm then 0500 rolled around and I shut that alarm off and got back under the covers for a 0530 wake up call. This reminds me of a motivational video that I have made into an alarm gone that I’ll try to find to post here. Regardless after I got home from work I went out for a 3 mile loop around my local lake and I sit here post-run by 10 minutes cooling down and feeling great. The recovery advisor on the Garmin said I wouldn’t be recovered until 10pm tonight but I decided to not be hindered by this gimmick. My heart date average according to be strap was 160 bp which of course is a bit high and Garmin’s training advisors says that my heart rate was in the over reaching zone. I don’t know if this is completely accurate yet and I am hoping that the kinks work out and it gets smarter or maybe it is my body and it adapts quickly enough. That being said Garmin 620 said my VO2 Max change from 32 to a 39. Which makes me extremely happy because I was bummed that my VO2 Max was so low and I thought that I was forever doomed by that low number to be a poor performer. So there is hope that I will become super super fast if I just stick too it. I’m sure a lot of my speed improvement could be increased if I lost about 50 pounds…here’s to eating better and losing some serious poundage before the January resolutions cloudy everyone’s judgement.

I went out for a 4 mile run at about 8pm after my kids were in bed. It was a chilly run and a bit windy but the route I took was sort of isolated from the wind. I did my usual 1 minute walk break at the mile marks (which the Garmin alerts to without being prompted which is a nice feature). My only concern is my heart rate is going into the 'over reaching' zone however I don't feel exhausted or like I'm pushing it hard. Keep in mind I ran 2 marathons this year and other races including a 20 miler a few weeks before my last marathon which was in October. Also I lost about 30 pounds after I started training and dieting (slow carb), granted I haven't been slow carbing too seriously since June and have put on about 15 of the lost pounds. Still all of those factors shouldn't have me 1) in the over reaching zone of my heart rate and 2) needing another abnormally long recovery time (60-some hours) as was stated by my Garmin after my Friday run. So with a plan if trying to run 100 miles before my cross country move threatening to unravel if I listen to the recovery advisor on my Garmin I plan on running for 3 miles either tonight or tomorrow morning and then I'll see where I'm at. Hopefully I can get all of my weekend work done to run tonight and or can roll my lazy butt out of bed to run before work in the AM. That means waking at at latest by 5am, ugh.

Secondly because it was only a 3 mile run and I'm supposed to 'recover' for 2.5 days! That doesn't make sense to me. Granted I am no heart expert or running expert. This recovery advisor advice is surely based on a formula that will also need to be highly refined overtime with more input. And yes this was sort of a crappy run. But hey everyone has crappy runs, and I'm just trying to get back in the groove of running regularly. Wind was blowing in my face, I haven't run in a bit, let alone regularly. I was in a funk. However that's the thing about runs, you'll have a sucky run, a great run, a slow run, a fast run. It doesn't matter as long as you get out there and run! With all exercise consistence is what makes it better, you better at it. So I'll end it here with further updates on my runs and experience with my toys, to come later. This is a non-athlete's running blog in the hopes of becoming an athlete and lose weight in the process. So let me know you think in the comments because I write this for myself but also for you out there who are looking for a place to fit in if you aren't an athlete but looking to get your butt in shape.