Two half marathons, eight 5ks.
I met my goal of running 500 miles this year. I think I am up to about 561 miles, so the goal for next year will be at least 600 miles. With me retiring I should have more time to run. I hope to do two half marathons. I have a New Year's Day 5k scheduled, and plan to sign up for a February 14th Hot Chocolate 15k race. I did not meet my goal of running three miles at an average pace of 10:00, but maybe this year I can get faster.
I've talked the hubby into going with me for my first 15k race next year.
I've tried MAF with no real success. I've tried to keep my heart rate down and just run really easy. That is fine, but I don't feel like it is getting me any faster. I decided today that I am going back to the run/walk intervals and quit worrying about my heart rate. I stayed relatively injury free doing that and could see progress. Did 5/1 intervals today for five miles and it was the best run I've had in a long, long time. I think that little one minute walk break really helps me.
That is a happy faced runner. My average heart rate was 152 with a max of 179, but I was pushing it at the end.
I tried to run this morning, but the wind was so strong it about blew me away. I only ended up doing a little less than a mile and a half. The temperature fooled me too. It was 43 so I thought I'd be fine with just my long sleeve tech shirt. Nope. The wind made it feel like in the thirties. A couple of pictures from the short run.
Here are my splits for today's race. I do not get my heart rate. I didn't feel sick or anything at that high rate. I know I could have pushed more but I forgot to turn off my heart rate alarm, so at 185 it kept going off. Next race I am just going to turn off the alarm altogether and push hard at the end.
It was cold, windy, and dreary this morning but my son took me to Inverleith park for the 5k. It started to rain once we got there and then it was sleeting!
I told him if it didn't stop soon I just wanted to go back to the flat. He said the weather changes so fast to just hold on.....so we did. And it did. The sun came out and the rain/sleet stopped. It was still chilly at about 40 degrees with a wind, but not bad at all.
No records set today. They didn't use the chip timing system and only had awards for the top three for female and male. But everyone got a medal, and a goody bag,
My garmin time was 35:11, about average for me.
...but it is exciting to have a medal And a t-shirt from a race so far from home.
Got to run again this morning in The Meadows. Following are some of the sights from the run.
...and this is the street their flat is on...
I did a little over four miles at a slow 13:xx minute mile pace. Kept the heart rate average at 145 bpm. Nice!
Had a nice run this morning at The Meadows. It is only a couple minutes walk from Elijah and Katie's flat.
Laps5
This is where I ran today. Relatively slow jog, but I didn't worry about my heart rate. It was in the 150s most of the time. I've given up on the MAF training. I just didn't see any progress.
I've decided to try to slow it down a lot, and see if that will help me build my aerobic base.
One month, no real progress. I feel like I am seeing progress on my inside runs, but not on the outside ones. This is basically a walk, not even a fast walk. Disappointing. Should I continue? Should I raise my heart rate minimum? 125 translates to a walk for me. I actually did two miles before my GPS found the satellite. It looks like if it doesn't find it before you hit start, it won't find it. I had to power it down and restart it for it to find the GPS. My inside runs are in the 14 minute range and I even got as fast as 13:48 the other day. At least that is a jog, albeit a very slow jog.
I found some recipes for protein drinks on one of my favorite blogs, Runs for Cookies. I made the butterfinger protein smoothie today with just a few changes to fit what I had on hand. Yummy.
I cup almond milk, 1 1/2 scoops of vanilla protein powder, 1 T. Cocoa powder, 1 T. Peanut butter, 1 1/2 T. Butterscotch instant pudding mix, 2-3 tsp chocolate chips, and about 6-8 ice cubes. I'm sure it isn't low calorie but it was a yummy meal replacement. I'm always running errands on Fridays and don't want to stop to eat. This took about five minutes and should last me to supper. Has about 21g of protein.
I am getting the opportunity to visit my son and his family in Edinburgh, UK, really soon. Cannot wait! I haven't held my sweet grand girl in three months! And while I am there......I am going to run the Edinburgh Christmas 5k.
Amazingly in a city of a million people, there are only about 500 that run this race.
I wanted to run my favorite trail today after my haircut. It was about 30 degrees, sunny, with a little wind. Normally, that would ensure a great run. However, to keep my heart rate below 125, all I could do was walk. I never generated enough heat to keep warm so rather than sabotage my MAF training, I gave it up and came home. Slowly, slowly, was able to jog six miles in the house. Yep, an hour and a half of that. And I even had new shoes to break in. Brooks Ghost 7.
I've written Dr. Phil Maffetone, the originator of the MAF training philosophy and asked if at my age would it be appropriate to let my heart beat get to 130-135? I'll be surprised if he answers. Looks like the questions and answers on his blog are several years old.
Today's long run was my official test 2 for the MAF training, even though it's only been a little over a week. The recommendation is to test once a month, but since I'm such a data geek, I'll test it with every run. I expected today's outside run to be much slower than the inside runs. Inside is so much easier. I guess because of the constant temperature, softer surface, and no humidity.
The track in the distance is where I walked/ran today. Honestly there was not much running. I also found out with my heart rate staying below 125 I don't get nearly as hot. I've never ran in my headband before, today I kept it on for the full 1:53 minutes. And wore gloves. Again, I've never even kept gloves on no matter how cold it was.
MAF is so hard. So. Painfully. Slow. But I've turned this into a little science project. So I am determined to test the hypothesis, and keep it up through the winter.
Stayed warm in my fleece lined cold gear. After today's effort, my feet really bothered me. I think it is time for new socks and shoes. I am surprised because I think I've just now got about 400 miles on them, but my feet have never hurt before. The balls of my feet burned after the walk/run.
