The heart of a fit athlete

This is not it (jogging a 5-miler, heart rate in red, pace in blue):


Hmm. Progressively rising heart rate up to uncomfortably high levels, while jogging at a paltry 12 to 13 minutes per mile. (Stop in the middle of the run to wipe away sweat).

This means one or more of the following:

• I'm not all the way back from pneumonia
• I've gained more weight while sick than I thought
• I lost much more fitness than I thought
• I'm totally non-heat-acclimated to jogging in ~75*F temperatures
• My knee and ankle are hurting all of a sudden way more than they should
• The Columbia Triathlon is already looking like a bad day from here
• No good can come from this

Be nice to your lungs

You may need them some day.

Mine are really pissed at me. (That's angry, not drunk, all you foreigner folks what don't speak American).

3 miles on the track today at (for me) sluggishly slow paces, at a moderate exercising heart rate (150-165 bpm) but at an elevated breathing rate of 2:2, about like I usually do when running 2 to 3 minutes faster per mile. Obviously somebody somewhere in the lung function department didn't report to work today.

I guess getting over this pneumonia thing will take longer than I thought. Heck, I thought once I finished off the antibiotics and the coughing stopped I'd be good as new. NOT.

And I've got Columbia (Olympic) triathlon in 2 weeks. This is going to be extraordinarily ugly.

(The good news is that I got my Garmin Forerunner 305 heart rate meter working again after some downtime after replacing the battery and then several weeks after which I finally figured out that I had to re-link it to the wrist unit. It sometimes does help to RTFM).

Limp dishrag

Ugh.

I was planning for 20 miles today and all ready to go. My training buddy even came out and ran for about 90 minutes with me.

Problem was, it was 100% humidity. Literally. It sucked the life out of me. When I got home after quitting at 10 miles it had dropped to 99% humidity. I drank four 24-ounce bottles of water in 2 hours, plus 9 Endurolytes, ate a bagel with cheese and several Clif Bloks and still lost over a pound.

Revising pace plans downward. . . .

Let's see, the median time last year in the Marine Corps Marathon for women in my age group, 50-54 years old, was 5:19:40. A 12:00 min/mile average pace would be 5:14:24. That's a more realistic range that I'm thinking of aiming for now than that sub-5 I was previously thinking of. But everything hinges on the weather on race day.

In 99-100% humidity, I'm a goner for sure.

Elephantiasis

How much slower does sitting on one's ass for 11 days (punctuated by a triathlon in the middle) make a person?

A lot, apparently.

I could only manage 10km today, in what was supposed to be a long run day. With a walk break in the middle.


I felt like a lumbering elephant. A stiff and sore and cranky lumbering elephant.

At a pace (11:42 min/mile) that will only buy me a 5:07 marathon on race day even if I could keep it up for 26.2 miles, which I doubt.

It may be time to start revising my MCM pace plan downwards. 5:07 would still be a huge PR, but I really would like to break 5 hours. But it may be much too late for that.

Oh well. At least my 10km was about 10 minutes faster, with an average heart rate 14 bpm lower, than I was able to run last Sunday. (Then again, it was 15 degrees cooler today, and I hadn't had the fun of a 1500m swim and a 36-mile bike to warm up with).

Harder than I want

I want these "little" 5K runs around the neighborhood to get easier. My heart rate topped out about 184 at the end of this one. Or I want them to get faster. Or preferably, both. I've got some ideas to jump-start my running a little once the girls get into school and I can hit a routine schedule of runs, but for now, it's ugly out there.

Ugly miles

The plan was to run 14 to 16 miles today. I made it only 13.6 miles. Slowly. With a lot of walking. And even though I was hydrating and taking salt and Gu like crazy, I still lost 3 pounds of water in the process. Yeah, I was that sweaty.

I think I may have to be patient and wait for some cooler weather before I can get in some quality long run training. This is NOT quality training. Plus my knee hurt, my feet hurt, blah blah blah. I have a lot of miles to go if I'm going to finish a marathon in 12 weeks.

Note to self: The average pace, with all the walking and water stops, was also a lot slower than the 11:20 min/mile you want to average at Marine Corps Marathon on October 28. Take heed.

How I racked up another DNF

I stopped after the 12k run today at Blackwater Duathlon. Those folks were tough and fast - at 1 mile into the run (that I hit at 9:59) the other women looked like they were all a half mile or more in front of me! (Only I and one other woman finished the first 12k at a pace slower than 10 min/mile).

It was just too freaking hot for my state of fitness. I couldn't keep my heart rate under 170 and still jog. Too early in the day to race with a higher heart rate than 170, with 40 miles on the bike and 5 miles in the run yet to go. I had to keep dropping to a walk to get the heart rate under control. Started gettting goosebumps. I finished 12k in 1:23 (12:22 min/mile) with each mile dramatically slower than the last (plots to follow if I download them from my Garmin). I found my bike was the VERY LAST in T1. It actually started to go a little bit dark for a moment there in T1.

I figured that I'd have to walk most of the second run in order to finish. I just didn't have the gumption to want to walk the second run for 5 miles.

Instead I opted to ride my bike out (after I recovered a little) and work the last aid station during the run instead. I had MUCH more fun, and helped the other death marchers make it home.

I might have qualified for the World Championships if I had finished - there were only 3 finishers in my division. (And I hear the duathlon World Championships course in Richmond this year is pretty hilly and brutal.)

But that's racing. There's always next year!