In the Pursuit of Wonder

Went on a leisurely walk at the greenfield riparian area with the family.  The walk measured out to exactly one mile and took us about 40 minutes.  It has been raining all morning and we got sprinkled on a little bit.  We listened to the thunder and had fun watching the geese honking, shorebirds feeding, and a couple of hummingbirds flitting around.

Ran 2.51 in 31:13.  AHR 153, 74% of max, HR Range 148-163, 26:06 in zone, peak 167, cal 714 based on 232 lbs.  It rained on my way home from work, so I hurried and got into my running clothes and rain jacket and headed out the door afraid the temperature would plummet once the sun went down.  It was a bit windy starting off.  I think I started off a little fast trying to warm up.  I have been making it to the corner without my hr monitor telling me to slow down.  Today I did a walk and started running again before I got to the corner.  I felt like I was doing a lot of walking and I based on my ahr being only 153 I think that is true.  I got sprinkled on a little bit, but not much.  The last 1/2 mile the wind really picked and was I was going straight into it.  My time was better than I expected it to be.  I am proud that I was diligent enough to get out even with the weather.  When I first thought about running about a year ago I would listen to a running podcast.  The guy said there was no such thing as bad running weather, just inappropriate clothing.  I thought about that all the way home from work.  I was hoping all the clouds would produce a nice sunset, but the cloud cover was too heavy and there wasn't much of a sunset at all.  I will have to go look at Burt's blog to see if he got out in the rain.

Ran 2.51 in 32:20.  AHR 155, 76% of max, HR Range 148-163, 27:18 in zone, peak 171, cal 757 based on 232 lbs.

 Ran in evening, temp was very nice.  I focused on running slow so that I could run farther without my hr monitor telling me to walk.  It seemed to work as far as that goes.  I ran considerably farther before the first time I had to walk and it seemed like I ran more than normal even though at a slower pace.  I also focused on keeping my walking at a very fast pace.  I expected my time to be much better.  I read an article a while back that talked about the average speed of changing your gait from walking to running was around 12 minute miles.  So I figured by walking fast and running more, but slower I would lower my time.  It didn't work out that way.  Apparently I was runnng so slow that it was less efficient than running faster and taking more walk breaks.  The 12 minute mile is sort of a psycholigical barrier for me.  I feel more like a runner when I can get under that pace as that is the minimum pace most people can run.  Anyways, it was a nice run and I felt like I recovered and got my wind back fairly quickly after the run was over which I take as a sign of improvement.

I will go running later tonight, but for now here is a news article.

Teenage handbag thief outpaced by 72-year-old ex-sprinter

She added: "I didn't think of my safety, but I did pay for it a little the next day. I was covered in aches and pains and my daughter turned to me and said it was because I didn't warm up properly."

PM  - Ran 1.92 in 23.17  AHR 155, 76% of max, HR Range 148-163, 19:16 in zone, peak 166, cal 545 based on 232 lbs. 12.07 pace.

 I scaled back my mileage this run, because Sasha has convinced me to run 6 days a week.  I plan on running 2.5 tomorrow as long as I feel good as I have Sunday to recuperate from it.  This will be the first time I have ever run 2 consecutive days.  I have been thinking about why Sasha wants people to run 6 days a week and I have decided it is so their are more blog posts which will increase the google page rank and get him higher in search engines, which gets more bloggers signed up and generates more add revenue.  I have seen him blogging about linux, so he is savy enough to pull that off.  I hope the website continues to bea a success so I can buy into that reasoning to.

 This run felt like a big improvement.  Normally I get just under half a mile before my hr monitor beeps and tells me I have reached the upper limit of my zone.  Today I got nearly a mile before that happened.  also my walk breaks before my HR beeped telling me I am at the bottom of my zone were much shorter.  I haven't run this short route in a few weeks, I will have to look at the log and see how much my time has improved in the last couple of weeks.  I really want to get under a 12 mpm pace. Oh and a car that passed me peeled out after he passed me.  He is a neighbor just up the street from me.  He won't be getting any cookies next christmas.

Ran 2.23 in 26.21 AHR 155, 76% of max, HR Range 148-163, 22:18 in zone, peak 167, cal 617 based on 232 lbs. 11.49 pace.

 I have been running consistently for just shy of a month.  I started out with a 1.92 mile run, then a 2.23 mile run, then a 2.51 mile run.  Now that I plan on running 6 days a week I plan on going back to the 1.92 mile run.  But on Saturday I figure I can run longer because I have an extra day of rest.  So I planned on doing the 2.51 mile run.  But my hip was hurting, so I decided to do the 1.92 mile run, then I decided it didn't hurt that bad, so I ended up doing 2.23 miles.  Apparently I have no concept of how fast i am really going.  It was cool, but the sun was out.  The radiant affect of the sun seems to have a big impact on my perceived effort.  I felt like I was going much slower than yesterday and walking much more, but I ran farther at a lower pace.  How I ended up with a lower pace baffels me.  Not that I am complaining.  I am very happy to have it come in under 12 mpm.  Well I am off to a Valentines day dinner.