Tuesday, March 26, 2013

By the numbers

For this latest comeback, I've decided to try something a little bit different. I'm an accountant, I count. This time I'm going to try and make some kind of nifty little graph to show how much my average heart rate declines over time as my average pace decreases. Boring, but it gives me something to focus on instead of my pitiful times.

Most times I don't have any problem not looking at my Garmin as I'm running. This go around it's even easier. This is probably the slowest I've ever run. The average pace last week was slower than most of the 50k's I've done. Still, that gives a good couple of minutes to trim off the average pace. Plus, you can't expect much from 4 runs for a total on the week of 15 miles.

Managed to break a couple of the new runner rules with this first week back. From this link, "build slowly for 9 weeks to a 3 mile run". Oops, I ran almost 5 miles on Sunday. Plus loads of advice from the forum on Running Ahead. Don't consider myself a new runner, so I'm able to get away with some of these "rules". It was pretty dumb to run almost 5 miles on Saturday and then run 6 miles on Sunday for only my 3rd and 4th run back. The one thing I'm not dumb enough to do this go around, is a running streak.

This morning we got a dusting of snow. Actually it was still snowing when I went out for a 3 mile run. Running while it's snowing is a treat. Running in the dark in the snow, not so much. Only because the snow flakes were so tiny, the only way to even know it was snowing was the reflection from the streetlights. That just doesn't quite compare to the daylight and big fluffy flakes floating out of the sky.

Watched the Special Kids 15k race on saturday from a point on Old Nashville Highway about 3/4 of a mile from the finish. I ran over from the trail head at Haynes Lumber, about 2 miles away. Brought the cow bell along to encourage/annoy/motivate the runners. Fun to watch and helps to keep me motivated to get out and run. Guess, I'm the only one would have liked to see different color bibs for the 5k versus 15k. Especially as they share so much of the course. It would have been nice for the lead female to have a bike leading the way to move the walkers out of her way as she finished. (I'd volunteer to be that bike rider)

1 comment:

BQ1 said...

hey, I like that acct. idea. Since I'm nearly in the same boat maybe I'll do something similar. Target bpm is a fixed # (Drs orders) so I'll graph paces at that heart rate, on the same course.