AM: coach approved an evening run tonight, but wants me to do my hard workout in the pool if possible, on the elliptical if not. Broke out a polar watch I owned, because it's heartrate monitor is supposed to work underwater. Well, after making it as tight as possible, and adding a knot to the strap (to make it tighter) it sporatically picked up the heartrate, which was better than not picking it up at all (how it was when I just put it on as a usual hr fit). Did 34 minutes warm up in the pool. HR only up to 100-110, not a good sign. I am supposed to be doing marathon pace for 58.5 minutes, which I think is around 150 heart rate for me, but not sure--I don't normally track my HR, dear me. So I decide to give the tempo a go in the pool but if it didn't get high enough I'd move to the elliptical (even more risky than pool since I've only done 30 minutes total on the elliptical in the last three months). Ended up doing 7.5 minutes in the pool, got up to 132 hr, but to get there I was breathing like I was doing a 10k, so there is a mismatch between effort and heartrate, perhaps pool running is partially anarobic, like lifting weights. I don't understand it. Changed my clothes, ate two stingers, and hit the elliptical. Did 8 min of warm up (HR in the 130's), then 51 min hard, ave HR 158. I am counting the 7.5 minutes of hard pool running because I was breathing hard and working hard enough for it, even if my heart doesn't agree. Then did another 48 min on the elliptical, HR settled down to about 135. I'll be interested to see what my heart rate is on an easy run to compare. So 41.5 min in the pool 107 min elliptical, 2:28:30 so far today.
PM: Good news! 40 min really easy with no pain. 4.64 miles. | 