At least I got out, right?

My cold is still going strong, so getting out of bed wasn't looking like a fun idea this morning. I told myself I'd feel better if I got out and ran, like I had planned. But the real motivation was that I'd get to try out these gels that I picked up at the store last night. I want to try them so that I was familiar with them during the race. I really didn't need them for the short run I was planning today.

The store I went to only had PowerBar brand gels. So, I picked up two gel packets and a packet of PowerBar Energy Gel Blasts (gel filled chews). They are basically gummy candies with a little bit of get in them. I got Strawberry Banana which has a little bit of caffeine. A serving (130 Cal) is 6 pieces and there are 9 pieces in a pouch. I had three before the run and tried to eat one during the run. These will definitely not be what I use during the 10k. They tasted good, but trying to chew gummies while I run didn't work. I felt like I was going to inhale the pieces, since I was huffing and puffing. It took way too long to finish chewing. I guess if I were to just stick it in my cheek and suck on it, it would work. But, I think my bets are on the gel packets now.

On the plan for today was in interval run, 8x 30sec hard/60sec easy. As I got done with the 6th interval, Mother Nature began calling again. Argh! This time fairly loud, so when I finished the 8 intervals I headed in. At that time, I was wheezing and broke out in a sweat. For some reason my left shin hurts a bit, too. So, I decided I "won" by just getting out while having a cold and I'd call it good. I ended up with 17:49 and 1.64 miles.

Intervals!

I've been mulling over which run to participate in next. But, while I decide, I should actually be running. So, I got out this morning and did intervals. Rather than the 60sec high/120sec low intervals in NRoLfW, I did double the number of 30s/60s intervals. From what I've read, it seems like this is more of a true high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. I think I agree. I can go all out for 30 seconds, but I can't hold that for a minute. So, when I do 60/120 intervals, I have to scale back my high intensity sections.

I ran 27:36 today for 2.42miles. That calculates out to an average pace of 11:24. I did get down to almost 7:30 for some of the intervals, though. It looks like one of the rest periods clocked out at over 17:00min/mile. Believe it or not, I was jogging during that time! Very slowly, but still...

My heart rate monitor must have lost contact during the fast periods, because the graph below shows my HR dropping precipitously as soon as those 30seconds start, then popping back up when I slow down. I think some of the intervals probably got up to about 185-190bpm, judging from the rate of decrease during the slow periods. That little dropoff with the blip at the bottom is typical of the HRM loosing contact. *sigh*


Today's choice of music was a 152 bpm Podrunner podcast called Power Trip. Nice.

Sweat from all pores

Today I did Stage 2 A2 of NRoLfW after warming up for 50 calories on the elliptical. I had to change up the order of exercises because someone else was using the squat rack. Things went well. Not much to comment on there. I used 25# dumbbells for the one point rows. That's getting close to my grip strength!

Instead of doing the High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with the last B workout, I did it today. I'm not sure why he put that on the longer of the two workouts for this stage. I hope there is not a problem with that. It starts out by warming up then alternating 1 minute intense with 2 minutes less intense. I warmed up at 5.0mph and 5.3 mph with intense being 6.8 mph and 5.0mph for the rests. I finished it fine, but I was pretty wasted at the end. I broke out into an all-over sweat and my heart rate stayed elevated for quite a while! It worked, I guess! During those 14 minutes, I covered 1.3 miles.