Workout: 6 miles @ 7:38 pace; core work. Weather: 72 degrees, dark, wet.
Recap: Almost didn’t do this run. I tried early this morning for 1/2 mile, but I didn’t like the way my feet felt. Walked home and decided to take the day off. Went to Dick’s Sporting Goods to get some compression sleeves for my calves because I heard that they aided recovery. Plus, they look kind of cool. A little later, I was looking up tendon pain in the sides of the foot. One of the recommendations was not to tie the shoes too tight. After knocking down some cookies, almonds, corny dogs and fries, I decided to re-try my run. And it turned out to be a good one. I hadn’t run at night in some time, maybe since last year, so it was nice to see some different scenery. Stomach held down the food pretty well, and the left foot didn’t give me too much trouble.
I did learn a lesson about relying on technology though. My habit now is to only show the time remaining and the pace for the runs now. I really want to avoid seeing heart rate, because I don’t want a number to tell me how I’m feeling. I’d like to get comfortable with “easy runs” as easy runs, especially. The pace felt fine for the most part. Being night time, however, I occassionally need to see the pace, and I have to check the night light on the Garmin to do so. Of course, I accidentally hit the watch menu to indicate heart rate and I saw “185”, which for me is like being right in the middle of a hard tempo run. Rather than panic, I ignored the watch, figuring that something must me wrong with the reading. The run just didn’t feel that hard, though it wasn’t a cakewalk either.
After getting home and uploading the data, it turns out the Garmin had my maximum heart rate at 212, a number that I can only reach through intense short intervals – if at all. And it read that the heart rate was over 200 for at least 3 minutes. Long story short…it lied. Now, maybe it was because I ran past a row of fast food joints. The same joints that can set off those police detector scanner things that are illegal to own. In any case, running by feel worked tonight. Have to remember not to get discouraged by the Garmin on the fast days either. Just complete the workout.
Have a great day and thanks for reading!
RunnerRich 