TODAY’S SUMMARY:
3 miles, 32:16 = 10:45 min/mile pace
Avg heart rate = 193
You can look at my average heart rate and immediately infer three things.
First, I have not been running outside in a while.
Second, I must have really been pushing myself yesterday, or it was hot.
Third, the old “226 – your age” rule for calculating a person’s max heart rate does not apply to me!
Of course all three are accurate. I haven’t been running outside in a while, and have only just begun substituting the elliptical machine for running. I both pushed myself hard, and it was indeed the warmest day I’ve run on yet this year. And obviously the heart rate rule is wrong for me, since 226-27=199 and in addition to averaging 193 for the run, the max I hit was 207. 207! I would be worried about this kind of thing if it weren’t a trend I’ve noticed since the day I got a heart rate monitor. My heart just really likes to get pumping, I guess.
Anyway. It was warm outside, but I want to at least get some degree of adaptation going on to maintain some level of outdoor running fitness, so off I went for a three mile run at Gilruth (out 1.5 miles, turn around, back 1.5 miles). I covered the first mile in 10:44, the second in 10:44 (I’m never that consistent!), and the third in 10:48. The third mile is actually a bit misleading, because I stopped for ~30 seconds to gulp some water from the cooler along the course, so the actual running time for that last mile, as I strained to finish, was more like 10:20.
Go me! It was harder than I’d planned on running, but it made me feel good to be able to do three sub-11:00 miles despite being, um, less than diligent about my training, oh, basically since February…
My knee hurts tonight though. And banging it into the table at dinner at Mely’s did not help. That aside, it still ached while running. I don’t feel like it’s getting any better. I go back to the doctor on Monday, eight weeks after I first went and he gave me the brace. I have not been perfect about wearing the brace during athletic activity, but I have definitely worn it while running, playing soccer, and doing the elliptical. I just don’t feel like the knee is improving. I’ll think it’s getting better, and then randomly it will start to ache again. I’m a bit worried about what the doctor will say now that eight weeks with the brace hasn’t done much…
It’s possible to raise your MHR you know. Whatever yours was to start with, you can raise it through exercise.