Sunday, February 17, 2013

Hot February Weather

Distance 48.7km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 4151.6km] Week 7

Monday, 11-Feb. 10km

A good running day temperature wise, it was in the high 20's today. The tide was high so it was a run along the road from Grange to West beach covering 10km. My first longer run since my rest period. I ran without a problem, my feet are back to their road handling ability. I think it will be quite a few months before I'm running 20km again, maybe next spring time.

Saturday,  16-Feb. 6.5km

A warm Saturday morning as I get out for my weekend run. I'm not going to run any distance today as it is too hot. Already at just after 9am the temperature is in the high 20's.
I found that there was a small strip of wet sand just beyond the waters edge, this would be my path for the day. It would be too hot to run on the pavements. I am still finding my heart rate is too high to be in the aerobic zone, today it is due to hot temperature. I felt pretty stuffed by the time I got back to the jetty at Grange. I had a paddle around in the water for a while before walking back to the car.

Sunday, 17-Feb. 8.2km

Another hot morning run. At around 9.30am when I was making my way around the lake the temperature was above 32C, I could feel the temperature in the concrete. In another hour it would be too hot to be running on. I tried not to over extend myself, kept a steady pace. By the end I could feel my throat drying out. I'm still getting a small amount of Achilles pain in the right ankle. I may do some more calf drops but only when I know I'll not be running for a couple of days after. I left my heart rate monitor today so could only guess how my heart rate was.

Neil

Sunday, February 10, 2013

I've lost my running Mojo

Distance 48.7km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 4151.6km] Week6

Week 5 runs. 19km

Well, after a bit of laps in blog writing I'm back. First a catchup on the number of kilometres covered in the previous week.
In all I went out 3 times the previous week. Once on the Monday where I ran 6km along the road, all untimed and unmonitored. There was no point seeing how far I had dropped off during my absence from running.
On Thursday I ran 7km along the beach, still feeling unfit but trying to take it easy and not get into feeling competitive and chasing other runners down.
Sunday. A 6km run around the lake at West Lakes, first time since my calf blowout. It still feels tight so I only ran the short loop. My feet were a bit tender as well, they hadn't been for much of a road run for a while and the soften off.

Week 6

Monday, 4-Feb. 7km

A fast beach run as I had to meet up with another runner a little later so I wanted to get a few kilometres in first. The sand was a bit soft today so it made the running harder. It got better at the lower stretch of the beach where it flattens out more and you don't have to run on a slope. I was quite tired when I got back.

Thursday, 7-Feb. 7km

Now I'm suffering from weight training leg soreness. At the gym yesterday I did whet I believed were light leg exercises but with high reps. My quads took it OK but my hamstrings are complaining.
Today was the first time I put on my heart rate monitor. What a revelation, my heart rate is much higher than I expected, and that is without doing much in the way of speed. The aerobic capacity must have shrunk completely. I attempted to keep my heart rate below 140bpm but it was hard to slow down to such a level that I could achieve that unless I walked. I feel like I've lost my running mojo for now, where oh where is it. Only 4 months ago I was running 25km on a run.

Saturday, 9-Feb. 7.5km

Once again same route and trying to keep the heart rate down in my aerobic range. The odd thing is that I do not feel breathless, I am quite able to look around and enjoy the surroundings as I run which would all be indicators that I am in my aerobic zone yet my heart rate is up around 141bpm, it should be 10 less.

Sunday, 10-Feb. 8.2km

Back on the full length of the lake. I very enjoyable run, nice and easy with just one little, tiny increase in pace to outrun a bunch of girls from the rowing club. I just couldn't let them past me, even if it did push my heart rate up to 150 or so. As long I don't die before I get to the end, that's ok.
This run made me feel like I'm on the way back. The climb up the hill has begun.

Neil