dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 10 miles today in 1:18:38.  Average HR was 141, with humidity around 40%.  I took this entire week off as I have been sick, while I also felt like I needed a bit of a break to hopefully let my leg and back heal.  Resting didn't help my back or leg at all when I had mono, but I am hoping that the better fitness this time around and a shorter break period will ultimatley help.  Things seemed a tiny bit better while running today.  During day to day activities I have noticed a larger difference as my leg and back feel a lot better when just walking around.

I was actually sore on Sunday after running 10 miles on Saturday, which I was not expecting since I only took off one week.  As a result of that, and a test coming up Wednesday that I need to study for I just ran 1.5 miles today, running home from school.

1.5 miles, same as yesterday.

8 miles this morning in 1:04:46 with an average HR of 142.  I can't remember the humidity exactly, but I think that it was somewhere in the 50-60% range.

8 miles in 1:04:21 with an average HR of 136, and humidity around 80%.  I could tell that there was more moisture in the air this morning, and my HR was substantially lower at the beginning of the run than it has been lately (high 120's).  About 3 miles into the run I felt like my throat started to become dry despite the higher humidity, and I also noticed an increase in my HR.  We have a cold air humidifier at home, but I wonder if it might be beneficial for me to buy a warm air humidifier to use when I sleep at night in order to keep my airways moist.

I ran 8 miles today in just a little bit slower than 1:04:00.  Average HR was about 140 (maybe a little higher), with humidity around 40% (I think?).  I think that I finally figured out what was going on with my leg and back as I guessed recently that my pelvis was rotated slightly counterclockwise in the transverse plane.  Doing some tiny things to fix this problem has virtually eliminated the pain that I have been dealing with for the last 5 months.  I think that the limited activity over the last few weeks has also helped to correct the problem more quickly, as I have not been reinforcing bad habits while attempting to fix the problem.

I ran 8 miles today on the indoor track at ISU.  It was actually a little warmer than it has been, but I am sick of running all bundled up, so I ran indoors after I finished my last final exam this evening.  The plan was to alternate directions on the track so that I was not going the same way the entire time, however I did not realize that the track team had practice until 6:00 pm, so I was stuck running on the upstairs track which is slightly smaller, has sharper corners (it is essentially a square with rounded corners versus an oval), has a harder surface (mondo downstairs, concrete with a thin layer of a cheap track surface upstairs), and has fewer lanes so that I am unable to change directions and run in the outside lanes.

To top things off I got excited due to the number of people on the track (and because it finally doesn't hurt to run as my back and leg have been feeling much better lately), and when a girl almost passed me at the beginning of my run when I was still running slowly, I quickly picked up the pace and before long I was running sub 5:30 pace with a HR of approximately 180bpm.  Doing this without ever changing directions on the track mentioned above is a recipe for disaster, and before long I could feel blisters forming on the bottoms of my feet, and I could tell that my outside (right) leg was getting fatigued.  I finally slowed down after running fairly hard for about a mile and a half, settling into a pace that was just slower than 7:00/mile.  After 6 miles I was finally able to go run the last 2 miles of my run on the downstairs track, however as track practice was over I had to dodge all of the people that were playing basketball on the track (whoever thought of putting 20 basketball courts on an indoor track was completely out of their mind in my opinion, as they dominate the good track, leaving only the sub par facility to run on, while a track makes for a sub par basketball facility as well).

Total time for 8 miles was about 57:00 if I am remembering correctly, with an average HR for the run in the high 150's.

I ran 8 miles this morning.  I fly to Arizona tonight, so I get to escape the cold and run in shorts for the next few weeks after this.  Total time for the run was a little slower than 1:04:00, with an average HR around 140.  I was pretty sore after running on the indoor track last night, and my right calf was complaining quite a bit.

We arrived in Arizona last night, to a downpour, and as a result it was fairly humid today (80+ % humidity).  The high humidity today will give me an opportunity to test my theory that lower humidity will lead to higher HR while I am running, and high humidity will lead to a lower HR while running as withing the next few days the humidity should drop quite a bit.  There are no mile markers that I can find anywhere, so all distances for the next while will be approximations.  Since my HR has been so wacky lately, I am not sure that using HR to estimate distance will be effective either.

I ran for 33 minutes on the canal trail today before turning around, calling it 4 miles.  As my back and leg have finally been feeling better I could not resist speeding up during the second half of my run despite the lingering soreness from my run on Wednesday evening.  I ended up finishing the run in about 1:02:00.  Average HR was about 133 during the first half of the run, and 138-139 for the entire run.  So far I am leaning toward accepting my hypothesis that high humidity = low HR, but I will have to wait and see.

I ran about 8 miles today.  HR was in the mid 130's on average if I am remembering correctly, with humidity in the 60's, and total time a little slower than 1:04:00.

I ran approximately 9 miles today in about 1:12:00, with an average HR in the high 130's and humidity in the 20's.  This falls in line with my thought that low humidity = high heart rate, as humidity was lower today and my HR was slightly higher than the past couple days.

I am lumping all of this week past monday into a single blog post as I do not feel like writing individual posts for each day and I do not remember all of the details.  In general I have been feeling better than I have in a while.  My HR has been lower than previous weeks, despite being in Arizona where there is lower humidity (although I have not been checking, so I am not sure exactly how low it has been).  This makes me think that humidity is not what causes my HR to rise (although I still think that it plays a role in what is going on).  I am starting to think that maybe my elevated HR is related to how well hydrated I am.  If I am well hydrated the HR will drop, and if I am not it will rise (or so it seems).  Maybe this was what caused the pericarditis over two years ago, as my body could have been attempting to protect the heart by placing fluid around it in order to combat chronic mild dehydration.  I will keep track of this.

My runs this week have not been too fast, but I have been throwing in something fast on most days as my back and leg finally feel healthy enough to speed up on occasion.  I have been careful to not run hard for long stretches, but I have been running strides some days, or maybe picking up the pace for a half mile or so on other days.  There was also one day where I was chasing a lady on an odd looking three wheeled contraption that she swerved back and forth in order to move forward.  It is very possible that I creeped her out, but I figure she had it coming when she rode an odd looking device on a public canal going slower than 5:00 pace such that I could keep up and examine how it worked from behind.

Total mileage Tuesday-Saturday was approximately 46 miles, with 9 miles per day, excepting Saturday when I ran 10 miles.  I alternate running either North or South on the canal depending on the day, and I am starting to get a better feel for how far I have gone each day, so my approximations are starting to become more accurate (I hope).

Instead of running today I went hiking with some family.  I was initially planning on running some after we got home, but round trip counting driving the hike took over 5 hours, and I didn't have time during the rest of the day.

Total distance hiking (minus exploring done at the top of the peak we hiked to) was about 5 miles, so I will count that as running mileage for the day.  Total time hiking was about 2:20:00.  Net ascent during the climb up to the peak was somewhere in the 1100-1300 ft range.  I could tell near the end of the descent that my legs are not used to that type of exercise, so I expect that I will be sore tomorrow.  I also had to be careful because I was wearing minimalist shoes on the hike, which do not offer much protection from rocks.  As a result I had to exert much more control over my motion when descending than the others did in order to avoid hurting myself, which I imagine took more muscular effort than I would have experienced otherwise.

As I expected I was fairly sore today after the hike yesterday.  I ran approximately 10 miles in 1:15:58, with an average HR of 144 bpm.  I hit the halfway mark in 40:30, with a 137 bpm HR average, and realizing that I needed to speed up to get home in time I picked up the pace at the 1:00:00 mark, maintaining this effort to the finish.