dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I did an easy run this morning before Kimia went to her doctor appointment.  5 miles easy in 38:11.  I will do another run in the evening.  I didn't take any pain meds before running this morning, and I was pleased with how my back felt.  On the negative side of things I could tell that I was wheezing just a little, and my HR was higher than it should have been, so I think that the asthma symptoms are already coming back just a few days after getting back to Vegas from California.  I wonder if getting a more expensive filter for our a/c unit will help with things.

I ran 10 more miles in the evening in 1:19:49.  I didn't wear the HR monitor and instead decided to wear my other watch.  I didn't look at the time until 5 miles into the run, and instead decided to just run what felt like 8:00 pace.  I was surprised when halfway through I was at 42:15 instead of 40:00.  I sped up the the second half to catch the 8:00 guy, and did not feel good.  My legs just felt tired and drained. 

I ran a speed workout on my mall loop this morning.  I ran a total of 15 miles in 1:49:57.  I got out earlier than normal because I wanted to get some speed work in and I didn't want to fight the heat as much as normal.  I got out the door at 6:30 and realized very quickly that I should have made it out the door by 5:30 at the absolute latest.  It is not that it was incredibly hot at 6:30 (although it was pretty hot by the time I finished), what really killed me was the sun beating down on me as I looped around the mall parking lot (virtually no shade and the sun was already way up in the sky by 6:30) as the sun here just drains me.  Based on the forecast it appears that the temperature was around 80 degrees when I started the run, plus or minus a little, and in the mid to upper 80's by the time I finished.

About 5 miles into the run, I ran 2.5 miles hard (2 loops around the mall) at what felt like a good effort that I would normally maintain for a 5 mile tempo.  Finished in 14:03, with lap splits of 7:09 and 6:54.  Half mile splits were 2:51, 2:51, 2:49, 2:48, 2:44 (last quarter in 79 running uphill).  

After finishing the mini tempo, I ran 3 more loops around the mall (3.75 miles) before running one last loop hard (1.25 miles) in 6:51, with quarter splits of 81 (downhill), 83, 84, 83 (all three rolling), 80 (uphill).  HR maxed out at 186 at the end of the last 2 hard loops, with an average HR of 176 for the last loop around the mall.  

Considering the pace, the HR was way, way higher than it should have been.  It is hard to tell how much of the high HR is due to the heat, and how much is due to the breathing issues I have been having.  Breathing felt better at the beginning of the run in comparison to yesterday's runs, however I did feel like I started to wheeze a little bit after I ran my first mini tempo section, and my HR never dropped below 150 after that point.  However, it was also starting to get hotter around the same time, so it is hard to pinpoint how much of the problem is heat related, and how much is breathing related.

After I got home I weighed myself before eating breakfast (I did eat a little cantaloupe first) and I weighed 118 pounds.  I have been weighing around 118 fairly consistently after all my longer runs lately.  I feel like I am in high school again as I wrestled 119 my senior year (although I was an inch shorter then).

I ran 10 miles easy this morning in 1:19:xx.  I got out later than I was originally planning (I was super tired this morning, despite getting to bed early last night, so I slept in) and it was over 90 degrees out by the time I went running.  The heat was not too big of an issue since it was just an easy run, and I was only going 10 miles.  I can afford to sleep in a little when I am running easy, but not when I do hard workouts.  

I checked my resting HR this morning when I first woke up, and it was at 36 bpm.  That is the lowest I have ever measured my resting HR, as normally it is around 39 bpm, and sometimes it is in the low 40's.  I check it by putting on the HR monitor, and then lying back down (usually on the floor so that I don't fall asleep).  I check my HR every few minutes to see how low it will get while I am lying there.

PM:  5 more miles in the evening.

I was planning to run 5 x 400 this morning on the mall loop, but my legs have been feeling dead as I have gone from practically no running while being sick/injured to hitting 78 miles last week and being on pace for more miles this week.  So, I cut the 400's short, only running 2 and giving myself 1200 rest vs the planned 400 rest.  I just ran up on the Pittman wash since I was cutting the majority of the speedwork, and it worked out fine.  First 400 may have been a little short, and I ran it in 64 (maybe worth a 67?) and the second was a 69 on a stretch of trail with a number of 90 degree turns.  Total time for the run was 1:18:53

PM: I wanted to run 5 miles, but I didn't have enough time before I went out with the missionaries, so I ran 3 miles at a brisk pace instead (20:10). 

I ran 10 miles easy this morning.  Temps were in the mid 70's and it was overcast, and I can say that I really enjoyed the cooler morning without the sun.  My HR was also lower without the heat or the sun, and I finished 10 miles in 1:18:17, with an average HR for the run of 129.

I have come to the conclusion that the high HR I have had lately is mostly heat related, as the temps the last few days have gotten up to about 107 and the allergens that were causing the asthma problems I was having have seemingly been burned up by the heat.  The wheezing has gone away for the most part, and now that it was cooler today my HR dropped back to normal.

I ran a long run on the mall loop this morning.  It was the first long tempo that I have run run since running the Illinois Marathon.  I ran to the mall, and then ran 6 laps around the mall before beginning the tempo run.  I got up at 5:30 this morning, and the sun had not yet come up over the tops of the mountains.  However, by the time I made it out the door around 5:45 the sun was above the mountains, and the temperature was somewhere near 80 degrees (my phone said 82, but it doesn't update often, so it may have been cooler).  Knowing that it was progressively getting warmer, I was unsure how the tempo would go.  By the time I started the tempo run, the sun was beating down on me, and any semblance of a shadow cast by the surrounding buildings was long gone.  I decided to not worry too much about the pace as long as it was sub 6:00, and I started the tempo.

My HR started out near 160, rose up to the high 160's after a couple miles, and then rose higher still to the low-mid 170's.  In the last mile, my HR got as high as 186, staying around 180 for the majority of that mile.

I took lap splits (1.25 miles each) and mile splits during the run.  The lap splits are probably a better indicator of how fast I was going.  Mile splits are as follows: 5:56, 5:56, 5:51, 5:53, 5:51, 5:47, 5:46, 5:45, 5:46, 5:33.  Lap splits were: 7:30, 7:23, 7:19, 7:15, 7:17, 7:12, 7:12, 6:56.  Total time of 58:04.

After finishing the tempo, I ran home to finish with a total time for 20 miles of 2:12:28.