Andrew is getting fit

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My long run today was not particularly long but it was long enough.  I did a 15 km run and it was probably my slowest run since I finished C25K.  I’d like to blame it on the Low Heart Rate Base Training I’m doing but I only got my heart rate fast enough to trigger the slow down beep from my Garmin about 4 times during the run.  It was just one of those days where my legs felt heavy.  It wasn’t helped by the fact that I chose the hottest part of the day to run.  And it was a glorious day!  The only problem was that it was extremely windy.

I ran past the Rose Gardens in Parnell and decided to stop and snap a picture with my cellphone.  They are looking really nice.  I’m going to take my wife there for a walk if I can this week.

Overall I did 15.41 km in 1:42:48.  Even though it was a slow run I enjoyed it.  It was great running along the coast line as the wind was blowing spray over the seawall so it kept me nice and cool for that portion of my run.

I also did a 10K low heart rate run on Friday.  I did that in about 58 minutes.

That brings my weekly milage up to about 40.5 km.  I’m going to try and get it up to about at least 50km a week but it will be a little difficult for the next few weeks as I’m going overseas on holiday with my wife and daughter.

I was supposed to be leaving this coming Wednesday (Australia for a week then Taiwan for three weeks) but my darling daughter has managed to catch chickenpox (The poor little monkey is covered with heaps of sores and is not happy) so we’ve had to delay our flight a few days.  So now we will will be leaving on Friday instead and skipping the Gold Coast leg of our trip.  We’ll still be visiting some friends in Brisbane for a few days before leaving to see family in Taiwan.

Getting all my runs in is going to be a challenge but I figure you can run anywhere really.  The trick will be to eat healthily.  I must admit my eating over the last few weeks has been a bit shocking.  I’m going to have to regain my healthy eating mojo.

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Tags: running by AndrewE
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I listened to a Phedippidations podcast on base training a while back and made a mental note to relisten to it once I’d done my half marathon.   So I did.

The basic concept of base training strikes many runners like a brain-teaser game: how can running slowly now help us to achieve better performances later in the year? It is particularly challenging to go from the relative intensity of pre-race workouts to a speed and pace that is much, much slower. However, if you come to the realization that many runners stagnate on a plateau of performances because they run too few miles, and these miles that they do run are are run too fast, then you open yourself up to the possibility of significant running improvement. Proper base training requires patience and discipline, and this week’s guest host, Steve’s running advisor John Ellis, explains how the hard part of this period of training comes with the dedication to running “easy.”

You can get the podcast here.

Basically, the whole idea with base training is that you run slower and further in order to build up your aerobic fitness. Your body becomes able to do more work at a lower heart rate.  There is a better explanation here.

There is an interesting FAQ on low heart rate training here which I found via the Running Ahead’s Low Heart Rate Training Forums. There is a lot of great information there.

As such, I have decided I’m going to try and do some base training.  I’ve completed all the events I’m going to do for 2008 and my 2009 events don’t start till late February so that gives me some time to get the physiological benefits.

The recommended target HR for low HR workouts is 180 - your age so today I did a 10K run where my pace was determined by my target HR of 146.  It’s quite interesting as the longer I went the higher my HR went so while I started off running 10.6 kph I had to drop it all the way down to about 9kph for the last kilometer or so.  Overall I did 10K in 61 minutes.

This is going to be an interesting experiement.

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Tags: fitness by AndrewE
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