veginator

5k race. Time was about 23:38, average HR was 155 with max of 167. Pretty flat course and not very hot weather, so I was hoping for slightly better, but it was close to the same as my fastest time this summer. Splits: 7:15, 7:53, 7:43, and I'm not sure what the last tenth was since I didn't stop my watch until about 10 seconds after the finish. Asthma acted up some at the end.

Had planned on swimming this morning, but I forgot that the morning open laps hours only lasted until 8, so I missed it. Went for a very slow jog instead, 2.33 miles, 28:02, pace 12:00, avg HR 117 and max 130. Did a brief weight workout beforehand--crunches, lower back machine, 8 reps of 260 on squat machine, and 6 reps of 120 on flat bench press. Afternoon: Swam 700 meters.

Wednesday: Did deadlifts (just 180 pounds, 6 reps, don't have weightlifting gloves and didn't want to kill my hands!), bench press (only 115 today, 6 reps), dumbbell curls (27.5, 8 reps) and row machine (160? 8 reps?). I had planned on doing swimming for my aerobic workout today, but both indoor pools on campus were closed and I didn't feel like swimming out in the hot sun, especially not without sunscreen. So, I did about 10 minutes on the rowing machine and 10 minutes on the elliptical, avg HR around 100. Later, I went ahead and ran 3.2 miles. Forgot to reset my watch and wound up with .8 miles from today added in, and I also got some false high HR readings the first mile, so I'm not sure of exact figures, but I think the pace was around 10:30 and avg HR was around 135. Today: Around 4.92 miles, pace around 9:30. Had to break for water about halfway through. Splits were 9:14 pace for the first .92, 9:33, 10:10, 10:16, and 8:53. Did the last half mile or so at around 7:30 pace. Avg HR about 134, max HR 162. Afternoon swim: 1100 meters. Of course I don't have time or heart rate data. I had to stop and rest pretty often; swimming is quite a workout! I took my pulse a few times, and after 50 meters of freestyle, my heart rate was consistently in the 130s to 140s, sometimes more. I think I'll probably go swimming tomorrow as well, so I'll have fresh legs for Saturday's 5k.

Ran 6 miles, 1:00:05, avg HR 131, max 144. My left knee was hurting a little bit (vestige of too much biking, I guess), so I stopped at mile 3 and stretched a bit, and that helped significantly. Still didn't make it go away completely, though, so even though this was my long run day I took one more water/stretch break at mile 4 1/2 and quit at 6. Took the dogs for a walk at Griffy Lake Park in the afternoon. It was ridiculously hot even in the shade, but hiked 2 1/2 miles over pretty rugged terrain and the knee didn't give me much trouble.

Rode 31.65 miles, took it easy today. Time 2:29:36, avg speed 12.7, max 37.4, avg HR 109, max 155. Much of the route I took overlapped with a recent bike race and, as is typical in bike and running races, directions, encouragement, etc. were written on the road at various points. At one point just prior to a ridiculously steep and rather long hill, ARE YOU READY TO SUFFER? was written in large capital letters. I had to laugh at that one, even though I was indeed suffering going up the hill. This evening I went to the gym. It was only an hour before they closed so it was a pretty short workout, a set of squats, two sets of flat bench presses, some rows, and 36 minutes on the elliptical machine. Set a PR of 120 (6 reps) on the bench press. Not sure how, because I've hardly been weightlifting at all the last couple of weeks. Average HR on the elliptical was 134 with a max of 148.

Not sure if I believe those figures or not. I'm pretty confident I've hit close to 180 before, but 190? We'll see if I can do it again. If the figures are accurate, that would mean my heart can beat significantly faster than is typical for my age, which is good. So the hitch is that no matter how much blood my heart can pump, my legs and lungs have to be able to keep up, and they're not there yet. The moment I stop an all-out effort, my heart rate drops like a rock, but I keep breathing hard and my legs stay tired for quite a bit longer. Sunday's workout: Bike ride of a bit over 30 miles. I accidentally stopped my monitor for a couple of tenths of a mile, so I rode until I hit exactly 30 on that. I accidentally set it to "run," but that actually turned out well because it was set up to record mile splits as well as give readouts in minutes per mile, whereas I haven't set the biking function up to do that yet. I'll skip listing 30 mile splits here, but on a bike it's a lot more variable than running--my slowest mile (the first, warmup mile) was in 6:47 and my fastest was in 2:24. I really pushed myself on the bike today other than on the first mile. Avg HR was 129, and max was 162. Avg speed was 14.7, max was 37.9, time was 2:02:23 for 30.01 miles. A little later I went for a 3-mile run as well. Time 28:02, avg HR 141, max 176, pace 9:19/mi splits of 9:20, 10:02, and 8:34.

A little less hot today, so upped the tempo of the workout a bit. Did a mile of intervals and a 3-mile tempo run. Interval splits: 0.35 miles at 7:24 pace, .24 miles at 7:16 pace, and .22 miles at 6:32 pace. On the first one I hit a max HR of 175, and on the next two I supposedly had maxes of 190 and 189. Not sure if I buy those numbers or not. Took walk breaks in between. Next 3 miles were 8:42, 8:35, and 8:10. Total time was 34:17, an 8:34 pace, with avg HR of 151 and max of 190.

Great news!

Bike ride 12.09 miles, 60:31, avg HR 112, max HR 147.

Lifted for the first time in over a week. Surprisingly, I was still able to do 6 reps of 115 on the flat bench press. Did sets of 8 x 95 and 8 x 105 as well. Did a full-body workout except subbed something else for squats since the outside of my ankle was hurting for some reason. Warmed up with 11 min. on the elliptical machine (avg HR 110), then moved outside and did 2 miles on a grass surface (outskirts of a golf course), mile splits were 8:29 and 8:34, avg HR 145 and max HR 159. Afternoon run: 3.1 miles. Ran on the grass in the park. Thankfully, this does seem to make a significant difference compared to running on asphalt in how much my feet hurt later. Time: 29:53, avg HR 143, max 161, mile splits were 9:45, 9:43, 9:30, and a 9:18 pace for the last tenth. It was REALLY hot--96 and very humid. I was going to run 4 miles, but the heat was just too much.

Rode 28.21 miles in 1:57:04, avg speed 14.5, max 37, avg HR 112, max 144. Afternoon ride: 25.56 miles, 1:57:05, avg speed 13.1, max 37.6, avg HR 114, max 151. Pretty hilly ride.

Did 24 miles on the bike in about 1:43 (accidentally turned the monitor back on for a few seconds after the ride), avg speed 14.0, max 42, avg HR 114, max 154. Planning to do a lot of biking the next couple of weeks, to hopefully knock off a few more pounds and get in shape for an assault on my PR in the 5k some time this summer. Feet are feeling a little better since it's been several days since I went on a pavement-pounding run. Given past experience, I know resting from running on asphalt is no cure for my foot problems, but it does help some.

It's certainly not cheesy or lame. My dogs are absolutely my best friends. I'm really sorry to hear about your cat.

2.25 miles, 22:30, pace 10:00/mile. Avg HR 132, max supposedly 157, but not sure I trust that reading. All my running was on the grass at the park; walked 1 mile there and back.

Yesterday: 3.67 miles, 36:34, 9:58/mi pace. Splits were 10:37, 10:13, 9:03, and a 9:59 pace for the last .67. Avg HR 134, max 153. Today: No exercise other than a little walking around. My feet have been bothering me a little more than usual lately, so I'm going to try to take a rest from running on pavement.

I think at some point all of us runners have faced this basic issue, whether it's a foot, knee, calf, ankle or whatever injury. I have a foot problem (tarsal tunnel syndrome) that at this point appears to be chronic, so I can empathize with your situation, although this particular injury has only limited my mileage rather than stopped me from running entirely. Anyway, other than the broken wrist I had last summer, none of my various injuries have prevented me from biking. Can you do that? It's not quite as intense as running since you're sitting down, but it's still not a bad workout--and wicks some of the sweat away on a hot day.

4 miles, 33:03, pace 8:15/mi, avg HR 149, max HR 164. Mile splits: 8:09, 8:19, 8:22, 8:11.

Tuesday: Rest. Today: 7.18 miles, 1:04:33, pace 8:59/mile, avg HR 145, max 158. By the time I got to my water break stop at just before mile 4, my legs were feeling like rubber, so I had to rest for about 15 minutes before I did the other 3.28 miles. Not counting the break, mile splits were 8:39, 8:42, 8:47, 9:12, 9:40, 9:34, and 8:34, and the last .18 was at 7:43. Walked another half mile or so to cool down.

Biked over to campus to do a varied workout consisting of swimming, running, elliptical, and of course biking to and from. Rode a total of 7.23 miles in 35 minutes. The first thing I did was run a couple of miles at varied paces ranging from a 6:00 pace to walking. I ran on the track so it would be easier on my legs, which are still in recovery from "killer Saturday," than running on the road. First mile was 8:08 and second mile was 9:09; average HR was 139 and max was 154. Then I swam for about 20 minutes, not sure how many laps--maybe 10 (50 yards each)? Swimming really wears me out fast. I would suck at a triathlon! Next was 20:33 on the elliptical, avg HR 127 and max of 143. So, about 90 minutes total workout time today.

Thanks. The times were about what I expected, considering. I chose to do a long, albeit slow, bike/run workout Friday because I really want to drop another few pounds this summer so I'll get better times in the long run. So, my legs were not exactly fresh Saturday morning, and obviously less so Saturday afternoon. Easy workout tonight. Ran 3 miles in 31 minutes, with splits of 11:52 (warmup mile), 10:06, and 9:00. The last mile time is approximate because I accidentally hit the "lap" button during the third mile. Avg HR 127, max 146.

Call me crazy, but I did it! Two 5k races on the same 90 degree-plus, humid day! There were actually about 10 other people crazy enough to do the same thing. My times were not great, but hey, I would have been surprised if they had been. First race: 24:22, 7:52/mi pace, mile splits were 7:34, 7:55, 8:06, and the last 10th was at 8:24 pace. Average HR 151, max 161. I couldn't push as hard as usual for a variety of reasons other than just wanting to be able to do the second race. I woke up feeling like crap, a little dizzy with a headache and slight nausea, got lost and got to the race late (the director was kind enough to let me run anyway and count my time!), and my asthma decided to be a major pain in the ass today. Second race, near the peak of afternoon heat and humidity at 5:30: time 26:04 (pace 8:29), mile splits were 7:45, 9:14, and 8:48, avg HR 153, max 161.

Friday: 8-mile run, very leisurely pace (1:36:07, 12:01/mile), avg HR 123, max 156. Later: 28.96 mile bike ride, 2:18:19, avg HR 110, max 133. Today's objective: burn as many calories as possible without tiring my legs out before tomorrow's 5k races. Mission accomplished.

Today: 4.0 mile run in 36:26, pace 9:06/mi, splits of 9:14, 9:10, 9:25, and 8:35. Avg HR 141, max 157. 7.06 mile bike ride, 35:28, avg HR 106 and max of 127. This was right after the run, so I was pretty tired. In the evening, I did another 14.19 miles on the bike, time 1:02:21, avg HR 115, max 136.

Plain ride? How come you're moving to Ottawa before moving to CA? I don't envy you having to move twice in a short time. The neighborhood my house is in isn't as great as I thought it was at first, but strong aversion to moving is keeping me here for now. To echo what others said and what you seem to have concluded yourself, as long as you try to get a realistic sense of what you can and can't do, interval training isn't going to be any more likely to hurt you than the long runs you've been doing. I think my foot problems have been partly due to overuse from not being able to do anything other than run when I broke my wrist last summer, and partly due to mechanical issues (I'm rather pigeon-toed and otherwise have oddly-shaped, if well-conditioned, lower legs, and I should have gotten orthotics and coaching on my running form a long time ago rather than just the last few months). But other than being a little sore when I've done too much, I can't say I've ever gotten an injury that was caused by a workout involving sprints, hills, fast tempo runs, etc.

Today: 4.2 mile run in 41:34, pace 9:34, avg HR 139 max 160. Then did 40:14 on the elliptical machine, average HR 130, max 155. Wanted to do laps in the pool, but they said it wasn't open for laps for a little while, so I did another 15 on the elliptical and then swam for about 15 minutes. I wanted to do a little biking, too, just to get in a super-long workout that was varied so my legs weren't too tired, but it poured down rain. I guess I could have hauled out the trainer, but just got involved in other things and ran out of time. Did 2 sets of bench presses and not too much else in the weight room. I wanted to focus on cardio today.