Still with the heat wave

Today's high temperature: 58F

Another run outside. Today's run wasn't as good as yesterday's but it was still so nice to be outside and running on my familiar trek. I ran my normal route and in it's entirety it's 4.25 miles. That's nice to know. I have never ran from point to point before. I usually ran for a certain distance and so ended before the starting area but today I just wanted to know how long it was.

After the run, I took a quick shower and headed over for my Fitness Test. I'm not sure why I even went. I'm perfectly healthy. I mean, I am a vegetarian runner! I told this to the physicians that were there and they wanted to know why I signed up. But it's still nice to know certain things.
Blood pressure: 106/60 (less than 120 & less than 80 is wanted)
Body fat percentage: 18.3% (as an athlete I should have 16-20%)
Pulse: 60 (should be under 65 - I was rushing to get there before my appt time so it was a little high)
Waist: 28" (over my shirt - needed to be under 38")
My forward bend was find as I could touch the ground.
Back bend was over 45 degrees.
Squat had to be held for 30 seconds.
My one-legged balance was a bit off, especially on my right leg. I knew I needed to work on that. He suggested doing it on a pillow which will help strengthen the ankle.

Tomorrow I will run my hill workout on the treadmill so back to the YMCA. :-( It was fun while it lasted.

Back to today's run: I even brought my camera with me today to take pictures. And I even took a little bit of video for RuncastTV, my first one!

Find more videos like this on RuncastTV

Then a few pictures of my route: click to see them bigger with captions - they will open in new windows

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 860 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 02/10/09 Up/Downhill: [+209/-209] Time: 04:41 PM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 49 F temp; 82% humidity 49 F heat index; winds S 9 Performance Distance: 4.23 miles Time: 0:39:00 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 13 /mi Heart Rate: 173 bpm (Avg) Calories: 451 185 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 08 -0' 05 6.6 +0.1 162 +23 ft 2 9' 15 +0' 02 6.5 -0.0 174 -10 ft 3 9' 36 +0' 23 6.2 -0.3 175 +23 ft 4 9' 10 -0' 03 6.5 +0.0 179 -13 ft end 7' 40 -1' 33 7.8 +1.3 183 -23 ft Versus average of 9' 13 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: DeKalb Nature Trail, heat wave in winter, pictures, video, wellness fitness test

Loving this weather!

Today's run was absolutely amazing!!

I didn't pack anything for a run after work at the YMCA. But when I was hearing that the temperature was 50F at 3pm, I started thinking that again I can't pass this up!

I went skiing yesterday and am sore today. I took a few spills but it's mainly my calves and my triceps that's hurting. Every time I got up from my desk today, it took a few feet before my calves would loosen up.



On the way home, I was figuring out what to wear. Got out of my car and OUCH my calves again! But decided to just suck it up and by the time I walked over to my starting point they should loosen up by then.

I went with my HeatGear Under Armour leggings instead of the thicker ColdGear ones and my Hind pants. Then my long-sleeved St. Jude marathon technical shirt and my Hind shirt. Since everything was black, I decided to go with my black Nike St. Jude hat. I didn't even wear my gloves or a headband today. I thought about bringing my cell phone or my camera but the shirt doesn't have a pocket unfortunately. I also left my iPod at home for I wanted to be complete with the weather & outdoor. I wanted to hear things and hear them I did! Lots of birds chirping and the creek was much louder with all the snow melting.

On my walk, they did loosen up and by the time I was running, I was good to go! I went my normal route and decided to try out the bike path. Everything good for a few feet then it got puddley and then it got icy! I ended up stopping and turned around before the 1 mile mark! So then I had to start thinking of how I was going to add in the extra mileage.

There was plenty of snow piled on either side of the trail and on the way back I could see hoof prints of where the local deer have walked. That was pretty cool and helped me increase my speed a little.

By the time I reached 2.25 miles, I was definitely increasing my speed. But I had to keep finding ways of adding mileage so I would run into cul-de-sacs that I saw along the way. I really took off near the end. I couldn't believe how good I was feeling.

I was feeling so good that after I stopped Phil, my Garmin, which just so happened to be at the starting point, I saw that the stoplight was green and I could cross the street so I started it again and took off running and just made it! I laughed when I stopped and thought about running the little bit home but I wanted to walk and cool down a bit. It was definitely a runner's high I got tonight!

So now I'm here, sitting on my couch and my calves I can feel are still tight. I'll pull my feet back and stretch them. Tomorrow's gonna be another warm day, 58 in the afternoon. Screw cross-training, I'm going running again!! I'm soooo taking advantage of this weather!

I also plan on doing the Wellness Fitness Screen that will test body fat percentage, blood pressure, pulse, waist girth, flexibility and lower extremity strength and balance and then suggestions will be given to me for these things. It's all free too with (free) membership to the local hospital's Wellness Club. I'm pretty excited about it! Hopefully I'll get good news on some aspects.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 865 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 02/09/09 Up/Downhill: [+101/-101] Time: 04:30 PM Difficulty: 1.9 / 5.0   Weather: Fog/Mist   48 F temp; 92% humidity   48 F heat index; winds SE 16 G 22 Performance Distance: 3.13 miles Time: 0:27:56 Speed: 6.7 mph Pace: 8' 55 /mi Heart Rate: 171 bpm (Avg) Calories: 332 185 bpm (Peak) Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Heart Rate (bpm)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 07 +0' 12 6.6 -0.2 162 +27 ft 2 9' 12 +0' 17 6.5 -0.2 171 0 ft 3 8' 37 -0' 18 7.0 +0.2 178 -16 ft end 7' 30 -1' 25 8.0 +1.3 183 -9 ft Versus average of 8' 55 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: aches and pains, heat wave in winter, runner's high, wellness fitness test

Heat Wave

My 8 mile run was great this morning! I had a bagel before I left. Yay food!! Good weather, good company and the pace was not so bad after all! Average pace of 9:55 min/mi. You'll see in my stats that the pace kept going downhill but I knew I couldn't keep that fast of a pace. And then when we started going west, where the 20 mph winds were coming from, that slowed me down a whole lot, especially near the end when I was tired and

I wore my Under Amour tights and my new Hind Pants and that worked out great!! I wore my ColdGear Under Armour shirt, with my new Hind Shirt over that. I also threw on my softshell jacket but even before the 2 mile mark, I had it off. Luckily, I wore my water bottle belt so that held it up around my waist. But it did keep me from easily reaching my Gatorade. I had a feeling that I shouldn't have worn the jacket but when I saw Joe with one on, I figured I better put mine on as well. I took off my gloves around the 1 mile mark. No pins & needles today for my fingers!! I had on my visor thankfully since the sun was bright and I also had on my sunglasses. Only wore a fleece headband, no full on hat. Apparently the 40's are a good number for me to run in!

Tonight I hope to run another 5-6 miles on the treadmill at the YMCA. Let's hope for that. I'll go an hour before they close. This way hopefully I can stay on the treadmill for an entire hour and get that in. Then I would have ran 13-14 miles and while it's not the best to do for marathon training but no way could I have done a whole 14 miles in one outing today. I'm not that trained yet. Hoping to get up to 9 next week in one run!

My cats are loving this warm weather finally. They are out on the balcony since the majority of the snow has finally melted away last night. Seriously, before I went to bed the snow was from front to back. This morning, it was just on the front. One of my cats is getting a little jumpy because of the wind but it's keeping her excited and on her toes.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 876 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 02/07/09 Up/Downhill: [+193/-193] Time: 08:07 AM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 41 F temp; 96% humidity 41 F heat index; winds SW 17 Performance Distance: 8.00 miles Time: 1:19:10 Speed: 6.1 mph Pace: 9' 54 /mi Heart Rate: 177 bpm (Avg) Calories: 857 190 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 06 -0' 48 6.6 +0.5 168 +36 ft 2 9' 38 -0' 16 6.2 +0.2 178 +10 ft 3 9' 41 -0' 13 6.2 +0.1 179 +33 ft 4 9' 59 +0' 05 6.0 -0.1 180 -13 ft 5 10' 06 +0' 12 5.9 -0.1 179 +14 ft 6 10' 36 +0' 42 5.7 -0.4 174 -36 ft 7 10' 27 +0' 33 5.7 -0.3 177 -7 ft end 9' 36 -0' 18 6.2 +0.2 183 -36 ft Versus average of 9' 54 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 8 miles, cold weather, Great Western Trail, heat wave in winter, long run, pictures