Friday, June 13, 2008

New Heart Rate Monitor

OBJECTIVE
5 mi. : EZ (8:24-54)

ACHIEVED
5.12 mi. @ 8:26/mi.

≈5:15 AM 77° 88% 0 mph

My legs are still sore and tight. I had hoped the condition was going to be short lived. It's not a big problem; just made it hard to get going this morning.

My Garmin pulled its mysterious "LOW BATTERY" routine again this morning. It hasn't done that for several weeks. So no GPS tracks for today's run. However, yesterday I received a new heart rate monitor that I ordered. So I had a toy to employ during the run. I didn't spend much time with it last night so I barely know how to use it. At this point, I can say it seems capable of many things. But there are only 4 buttons and if you punch them in the right sequence, you'll get the desired output. Let me just say that I haven't figured out how to play Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries with four notes yet!

Strapped on the monitor, hit start and ran. It was actually good not knowing my pace today. I should probably take this approach more often. When I'm doing easy or slow runs, I try not to look at my Garmin but it's habitual and I think I still focus on it a bit too much. Well, not having the Garmin today made the point as I caught myself looking at the heart rate monitor.

I ran the York Minster Loop so I know where the mile breaks are. I checked the monitor at those points and knew that I was around 8:45-50/mi. and just tried to hold it there.

The miles rolled by. I think I'm getting better at pushing my mental focal point out farther. Other than that the run was uneventful. The sun is coming up earlier and it gets lighter earlier now as we approach the longest day of the year next week.

I have my first physical therapy session this afternoon. I'm a bit apprehensive about it but I suspect it will turn out fine.

Tomorrow's run is 10 miles. I'll have to start early. Cameron has a baseball game at 10 on the other side of town.

Oh, about failed to mention my average heart rate for the run was 144. Not sure what that means since I have nothing to compare it to ....


PRE RUN
water

POST RUN
SlimFast, water, multivitamin @ GrapeNuts w/skim milk

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

Don't leave us hanging! What heart rate monitor did you get?

Cory said...

Nothing to get excited about, Jonathan. My new heart rate monitor is what I'll call an extreme-low-end version. It's a Sports Instruments Pro 7. I got it at www.nashbar.com go $19.95 (regularly $99.95 ... if you believe the sales hype). It seems functional and I don't plan to use it regularly.


Cory