A nod to the infamous hill in Boston Marathon. Also related to what I did tonight!
I received my heart rate monitor in the mail yesterday. I put it on last night when I went to bed to pair it to my Garmin 405 and see if I could get it to work. I did eventually after finding out that the sensors needs to be wet. My resting heart rate was 54-56, pretty much what I measured at work a few weeks ago. Garmin automatically figured my max heart rate at 185 bpm but I don't think that's right for my age. I have to figure out which one of the many algorithms to follow.
So today, I was schedule to run a tempo run. Instead of doing that, I decided to hit the hill workout. I haven't done that since my half marathon training in 2007.
I put on the heart rate monitor in the locker room. It's difficult for women to wear one though because it's goes right where the bottom of the sports bra lays. I've seen versions where you can thread the monitor strap right though it and it will lay against your skin still. But tonight I managed to get it around my chest and have the bottom of it over the top and below the strap so it works.
My Garmin 405 picked up my heart rate and everything looked normal. I got on the treadmill and started my run. Just to refresh your memory, here's what I followed:
At zero incline, run for ten minutes at a comfortable pace. Set the incline to one percent and run at the same speed for a minute. Drop back to zero incline and run a minute.
Raise it to two percent for a minute, then down to zero for a minute. Next raise it to three percent, then down to one percent, then up to four percent, then down to two percent -- all for a minute each. Then go up to five percent and down to three percent.
Work your way back down from there: four, two, three, one, two, zero, one, zero. Finish with ten minutes of comfortable running at zero. Total running time: 38:00 (14:00 uphill).
***********************************************
I ran at 6.3 mph or 9:31 min/mi. What I didn't realise is that in order for me to be able to transfer this to the computer, I have to do a training start & stop. So after running for 2:30 I hit the start button. Whoops. And I had to manually hit the Lap button since I wasn't using the GPS function. I decided that at every minute, which signifies a change in incline, I'd hit it for a new lap.
I stuck to the 10 minute warm-up. And I started the hills. I'm not gonna lie. It was tough. It really got to me around incline 3%. And 4%. And 5%! HA! But I stuck with it. I looked at my heart rate every now & then. I got pretty good and hitting the button on my watch without looking at the watch. After running at 5%, 3% felt like a breeze! At 3%, 1% felt like downhill and I felt like I got faster. I was sweating up a storm. I'm now wondering if I should do that on every Wednesday or if I should just stick to every 3rd Wednesday and still do the tempo & speed work. Or maybe instead of just tempo as speed work will make me faster.
Here's my heart rate graph:
Unfortunately, my Garmin didn't figure out my calories. Maybe that's because I wasn't actually running anywhere and it had no incline or speed to base it off of. I'll have to look to see that's supposed to give me numbers with the GPS on.
It looks like I might be heading down to southern Illinois this weekend. I might be able to get in a run down there but I think I'd be too worried & nervous. Though it might help my stress levels. We'll see how it goes.
I received my heart rate monitor in the mail yesterday. I put it on last night when I went to bed to pair it to my Garmin 405 and see if I could get it to work. I did eventually after finding out that the sensors needs to be wet. My resting heart rate was 54-56, pretty much what I measured at work a few weeks ago. Garmin automatically figured my max heart rate at 185 bpm but I don't think that's right for my age. I have to figure out which one of the many algorithms to follow.
So today, I was schedule to run a tempo run. Instead of doing that, I decided to hit the hill workout. I haven't done that since my half marathon training in 2007.
I put on the heart rate monitor in the locker room. It's difficult for women to wear one though because it's goes right where the bottom of the sports bra lays. I've seen versions where you can thread the monitor strap right though it and it will lay against your skin still. But tonight I managed to get it around my chest and have the bottom of it over the top and below the strap so it works.
My Garmin 405 picked up my heart rate and everything looked normal. I got on the treadmill and started my run. Just to refresh your memory, here's what I followed:
At zero incline, run for ten minutes at a comfortable pace. Set the incline to one percent and run at the same speed for a minute. Drop back to zero incline and run a minute.
Raise it to two percent for a minute, then down to zero for a minute. Next raise it to three percent, then down to one percent, then up to four percent, then down to two percent -- all for a minute each. Then go up to five percent and down to three percent.
Work your way back down from there: four, two, three, one, two, zero, one, zero. Finish with ten minutes of comfortable running at zero. Total running time: 38:00 (14:00 uphill).
***********************************************
I ran at 6.3 mph or 9:31 min/mi. What I didn't realise is that in order for me to be able to transfer this to the computer, I have to do a training start & stop. So after running for 2:30 I hit the start button. Whoops. And I had to manually hit the Lap button since I wasn't using the GPS function. I decided that at every minute, which signifies a change in incline, I'd hit it for a new lap.
I stuck to the 10 minute warm-up. And I started the hills. I'm not gonna lie. It was tough. It really got to me around incline 3%. And 4%. And 5%! HA! But I stuck with it. I looked at my heart rate every now & then. I got pretty good and hitting the button on my watch without looking at the watch. After running at 5%, 3% felt like a breeze! At 3%, 1% felt like downhill and I felt like I got faster. I was sweating up a storm. I'm now wondering if I should do that on every Wednesday or if I should just stick to every 3rd Wednesday and still do the tempo & speed work. Or maybe instead of just tempo as speed work will make me faster.
Here's my heart rate graph:
Unfortunately, my Garmin didn't figure out my calories. Maybe that's because I wasn't actually running anywhere and it had no incline or speed to base it off of. I'll have to look to see that's supposed to give me numbers with the GPS on.
It looks like I might be heading down to southern Illinois this weekend. I might be able to get in a run down there but I think I'd be too worried & nervous. Though it might help my stress levels. We'll see how it goes.
