Garmin Piece of Junk

The last time I ran was the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February. That would also be the last time I wore my Garmin Forerunner 230, the "trusty" running watch I got for myself shortly after I decided to take up heart rate training in 2015.

Man, has the watch been a disappointment this year. The day before the Princess 10k, I put my watch on and the little band that holds the excess watch strap broke. Luckily, I was able to improvise using a Disney Annual Passholder 2014 band decoration for the race.

But then I quit running after that race. I'm not really sure if I'll ever be able to take it up again because I'm just so freaking uncomfortable right now. I have tissue expanders in the place where my left breast used to be. My plastic surgeon and breast surgeon operated on me the same day back in July - the whole procedure, which I refer to as "demolition" and "reconstruction," took about six hours. Apparently, I had to be intubated and was given a catheter. Anesthesia is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

So since July, I've had the tissue expanders in place, and have had to go for a few "fillings." This will create space for the plastic surgeon to give me an implant after I'm finished with chemotherapy. You can imagine this is not a very "comfortable" process.

I don't know if running will ever be a part of my life again. The TE is extremely awkward, and I just generally don't feel good most days while on chemotherapy, so running is right out. I also need to avoid gyms and other places that are germ breeding grounds since my immune system is compromised.

While I'll be able to go back to the gym after chemotherapy is over, I doubt I'm going to feel any more comfortable and excited about running after having an implant.

Meanwhile, I can't just sit around and be inactive, even during this trying experience that is going through chemotherapy. So I've been trying to get at least a walk in daily, and I was reminded yesterday that my Garmin could keep track of my step count. I thought it might be best for me to try to get 10k steps in every day.

So I charged up my watch, put it on, and then this happened:

Cheap watch strap snapped right in half. You can also see the Disney Passholder charm I was using to hold it together before this happened. 

I just can't catch a break. Going to see if I can buy a replacement watch strap now.

Running Recap

Alright, running friends. What do you do when you wake up bright and early on a Saturday morning for your weekly long run and find with dismay that you've let the battery die in your trusty Garmin?

Well, the first thing I did was put a reminder in my iPhone for every Friday night going forward to check my watch battery. I'm not letting that happen again.

And then I laced up and ran out the door anyway. I figured I'd been given a gift - a non-rainy Saturday morning where I otherwise felt great couldn't be wasted. St. Pete Run Fest will be here before I know it, so I figured I'd train using Rate of Perceived Exertion. But using RPE doesn't always work out for me when trying to stay in my target heart rate, and it certainly didn't help that it quickly got to be hotter than balls by 8am.

Call the police and the firemen. 

Ah well. Still glad I got out there... because I finally solved a mystery that has been bothering me for almost a year now. At this time last year, I ran into some kind of race happening put on by the Florida Ultra Runners but could find no mention of what they were up to online. So when I saw them again this weekend, I worked up the nerve to actually ask one of the runners what was going on.

The event was something called the "Durty(sp) Beer Run," an annual 6-hour run that takes place along a 3 mile-ish loop in downtown St. Pete from 6am to 12 noon. St. Pete is pretty packed with microbreweries, so I suppose it makes a good destination for that kind of run but... no thanks, I'll pass. It was 8 million degrees on Saturday. I'm only slightly exaggerating. I wonder how many people died that day.

Yet that wasn't the only event taking place on Saturday! They were also setting up for something called the Great Brain Wash, which looked much more appealing. This 5k included inflatable obstacles that were similar to giant slip-n-slides, and the race supported brain tumor research. I would have totally crashed the course, but they hadn't started yet, so I just walked my sweaty self home.

My Disney Annual Passes came out of blockout this week, so my husband and I went back to Animal Kingdom yesterday for the first time in over two months.

When our Disney Annual Passes come out of blockout, Ben and I be like...

Also, still going strong with my puritanical devotion to healthy eating, having no difficulty navigating a day at Disney yesterday food-wise whatsoever. I will share that I have begun picking up tracking my food in MyFitnessPal again, because I do believe I may be falling into the trap of undereating. I would rather err on the side of having a little bit more food than I need right now to kill any future possible binge urges while I've got the support of medication on my side, rather than be sucked back into the same dangerous cycle the minute I stop meds. Like I said in my initial post on the subject, it's all about developing the right habits for me right now.

You must unlearn what you have learned.

It was a good weekend for dramatic developments in my half marathon training.

Breakthrough the first: Realizing that I was much worse off than originally thought when I started training back in September. Understanding this has lead me to achieve a state of peace with myself after suffering a week of despairing with the knowledge that I will not hit my sub 2:00 half marathon goal next month. Now I know that I'm on the right track to get me to my goal for the next one.

Breakthrough the second: I can run at a lower heart rate - and improve my cadence and stride length. Previously, I thought these things were mutually exclusive. 

I'll back up a second - one of the key challenges I've had with the Maffetone Method is finding a consistent pace during my training runs. Whenever I felt like I'd have a good pace going, I'd inevitably hit the upper limits of my target HR and have to slow down to a walk. Walking would then quickly drive my HR too low in the other direction, leading to training using a run/walk method that was highly inefficient. Here's a good visual from earlier in February: 

See all those peaks and valleys in the blue and red charts? Not good.

When I tested my speed two weeks ago with miserable results, I initially thought the failure might be due to still training at an HR that was too high - that frequently drifting above 140bpm (like you can see in the graph above) might have messed me up, and that perhaps my MAF range isn't 130-140, but should be 125-135. But, from my own words, you can see how well I thought that would work out: 

I can try scaling back to 125-135bpm in future training runs, but my challenge here is that I can't actually run in this range. My slowest jog sends me upwards of 140, and walking drops me down to 120.

Given what I understand about myself now from breakthrough #1 above, I know I need to slow down even more. So the question is: how can I do this and still do something that resembles running consistently? 

The answer: Work on cadence and stride length. Take shorter, quicker steps. The ideal run cadence is 180 steps per minute, and I've been averaging about 160. To work on this yesterday, I popped in my headphones and swapped out my usual "Eye of the Tiger" playlist for an iPhone metronome app set to 170 bpm (I figured the best approach is to gradually work my way up from 160 instead of going at 180 right out of the gate). 

The result? I was able to run slowly the entire time. While I'm sure I looked ridiculous, I rarely hit the upper limit of my HR range. 

Compare this to above. Fewer peaks and valleys, except maybe where I needed to stop and cross a few streets.

So now that I know I can do this - and do it right, even if I'm really slow - I'm interested to see if I will start to make notable improvements in my pace much more quickly going forward.

Today's exercise: Rest. But I can't wait to see what I can do tomorrow (as long as I don't go insane from two hours of listening to a metronome).

"I Love You." "I Know."

Happy Valentine's Day, Friends. Celebrating with my Valentine tonight at Cinderella's Royal Table. I reserved this months ago for the hubs, intending it to be a surprise, but Disney went ahead and loaded it to his "My Disney Experience" app the day after I made the reservation.

Surprise blown. Thanks, Disney. But I forgive you - as long as Leia is among the Disney princesses that visit our table tonight.

Anyway, I had a spaz moment this morning. My routine on Sundays used to involve meeting up with my mom at a branch of Globo Gym near her for spin class, and then having breakfast together afterwards. I changed it up after beginning Maffetone Method training though since I had a really difficult time keeping my heart rate in the MAF range at spin. So I'd still meet up with her at the gym but run on the treadmill instead. She's cool with that because we still get sauna time and breakfast to catch up on all the goings-on of the week.

But I kind of loathe the treadmill now. So I figured I'd slightly modify my routine and run on the Pinellas Trail - a 40 mile bike path - that goes right past Globo Gym. I planned on using the gym for strength/sauna/shower time afterwards.

Good idea right? Until I saw this:

Foiled!

So I grudgingly went back inside and started my run on the treadmill. But I was way overdressed, expecting to be running outside in 52 degrees (and, yes, that's cold), and my dreadmill run felt even more miserable than usual.

After a mile, it hit me... that the trail runs in two directions.

So I went back to the trail...

Smart, Nicole. Just turn 180-degrees next time.

I was so thankful to be able to finish my run outside, but man. I definitely took a stupid pill this morning.

Thanks, Vader. Who said anything about clumsy?

62 days left.

Today's Exercise: 3 mile run hybrid w/ core work:

M1: 15:20
M2: 15:44

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
3 eggs with spinach, tomato, onion, coffee	N/A	N/A	Dining like royalty at Cinderella's Castle

Finding my Stride

I could not have had a more perfect day for a run.

I could not have had a more disappointing run.

My biggest frustration right now is that I can only sustain a pace that feels good to me for about a minute until my Garmin yells at me.

Whatever happened to this guy? Why isn't he running for president?

So then I have to walk for another minute to bring it down, and then I'll get jogging again, and then I get yelled at again, and the cycle goes on and on until I just want to throw my HRM into the ocean.

About two miles into my run, I stopped to change my watch settings because I realized I was stressing myself out about my pace. Every time I'd look down when my watch alerted me my heart rate was too high, I'd see just how slowly I was going and feel like crying. I'm sure that wasn't helping my heart rate at all, so I changed the watch face to only show me the timer and my heart rate.

At about three miles into my run, I also ended up shutting my iPhone off. I run with it for music and emergencies, but I had that nuisance problem of my phone taking photos of the inside of my pocket. I know when it's happening because after so many photos are taken, the music just cuts off. I was just not in the mood to fight with technology today.

These little adjustments made a difference, albeit minimal, for the rest of the run. But I was still irritated anytime my Garmin beeped. During one of my "slow-downs" around mile 4, I passed a guy sitting on a bench who yelled at me to keep running.

I gave him the dirtiest look I could.

Had I had the time or inclination, perhaps I would have sat down and politely explained to him that I would have loved NOTHING MORE than to keep running, or run faster even, but my watch told me no. 63 days left.

Today's Exercise: 8 mile outdoor run:

M1: 15:21
M2: 15:11
M3: 15:38
M4: 15:29
M5: 14:55
M6: 14:32
M7: 15:13
M8: 15:27

My nose runs faster than I do.

It's winter in North Carolina. I found myself with some downtime this morning, so I wanted to get in a long run. It didn't happen exactly as I hoped. I learned that two things slow me down:

1. Elevation. Not a big surprise here, but the gently rolling hills of Greensboro challenged me. 
2. Cold. I thought maybe I could be faster in the cold. I certainly wanted to be faster in the cold to get back to a nice, hot shower more quickly, but my heart rate monitor told me no.

Anybody else get annoyed at their HRM when the alerts go off?

I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to flat, winter-less Florida tonight. 

I am not sure when the last time I ran outside in near freezing temperatures was. My body pretty much shuts down if it's below 50 degrees. I set out this morning thinking I'd get 6 miles done today, but turned around after mile 2 because of numb fingers and toes.

So I'm not too disappointed in my run times today. I was running about the same pace just a few short weeks ago in moderate temps with no elevation. If I had to make a guess about why my last mile was the fastest, I would say it's because that's when my toes finally got some feeling back.

Some feeling... As I write this 3 hours after my run, I'm still trying to get warm. I see more coffee in my future.

Oh, there's some big athletic event happening today... I only care when my Giants are playing. Here's my favorite football moment ever.

69 days left.

Today's Exercise: Greensboro Run:

M1: 16:14
M2: 16:29
M3: 16:06
M4: 15:22

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
2 HB eggs, banana, coffee	Chicken, veggies, chips and salsa, HC Latte	N/a	Too full from lunch

Upgrading to a BB-8

After taking a few days off from running to focus on moving and unpacking, I found myself with a little time and motivation to take one last jog down Bayshore Blvd. today before saying goodbye to Tampa for a  while. 

Which gave me a chance to use my new droid*:

I got it in purple to match my awesome new shoes.

The Garmin Forerunner 230 is essentially the same as the FR 235, which I fired two weeks ago. The key difference is that the 230 does not have optical heart rate monitoring - you must use a chest strap to get your HR.

Before today, chest straps and I were not friends. But the strap that came with the bundle did me no wrong. And I had a pretty even, consistent, stress-free run. 

Maybe I'll actually keep the FR 230. 

Oh, I did find my old Polar Heart Rate monitor while unpacking everything - so for friends who mentioned interest in getting started with HR training, let me know and I'll send it your way. 

There's still a ton to do to truly feel settled at the house, but it will all come in time. I don't have internet set up yet at home - we're hoping the local cable company will have everything set after Wednesday. I'm using the WiFi at Dunks right now, and will need to "commute" to my mother's house for the next two days so I can get connected for work. I am hoping to still be able to check in here - I was pretty proud of only needing to skip one day of blog writing over the craziness of the last few days, but it really killed me to miss posting yesterday. 

So back into the groove with running, feeling good about my new hardware - now, just need to get back to where I was with my diet. Unfortunately, my day today is pretty reflective of how I've been eating during the move. I just didn't have time or the inclination to cook and eat healthfully.

*Amazon Affiliate Link. This means that if you click a link to Amazon through my site and buy something, I may earn a commission. Much obliged.

75 days left

Today's Exercise:  Last outdoor run @ Bayshore Blvd:

M1: 15:47
M2: 15:40
M3: 15:49
M4: 15:30
M5: 15:23
M6: 15:49

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack(s)	Dinner
Quinoa and sausage, coffee	Egg and cheese on a bagel, caramel coffee	Donut	N/A, tea

Fired another droid

Continuing the discourse on running gear today. I have not mentioned yet that I fired my Garmin Forerunner 235 last week. 

Before I had the FR 235, I had the Apple Watch. Which I also fired. 

Listen, I do my due diligence before making investments in technology. Everything I had read online suggested these devices with optical heart rate monitors do just fine, which was exciting to me because I loathe heart rate chest straps. Didn't have a good experience with an old Polar HRM. Chafing issues.

But I'd rather give it another go with a consistently reliable HRM chest strap than continually get frustrated with optical HRM crap outs. With both the Apple Watch and the FR 235, I'd experience extended periods of time where I was either getting readings I knew were too low, too high, or getting no readings at all. Just a status that said "measuring."

I can't be the only one dealing with this, can I? Both products have good reviews.  Do I have weird wrists or something? 

So I sent back the FR 235 to Amazon and exchanged it for the Garmin FR 230 bundle*. It should arrive by the end of the week. The 230 is essentially the same as the 235, the ONLY difference is that it does not have the optical heart rate monitor. 

In the meantime, I'm not going HRM commando. I've gone back to using my Apple Watch as a running watch and pairing it with Map My Run to get at least some running data. 

*Amazon Affiliate Link. This means that if you click a link to Amazon through my site and buy something, I may earn a commission. Much obliged.

82 days left

Today's Exercise:  Bayshore Blvd Run -

M1: 15:37
M2: 15:44
M3: 16:31

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack(s)	Dinner
3 eggs with spinach, coffee	Salmon salad, tea	2 HB Eggs	Chili, tea

Run, Interrupted

The Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon was this morning. Just like I ran a 10k yesterday to celebrate the one year anniversary of my participation in the Rebel Challenge, I considered running a half marathon today to keep the "celebration" going. (Notably, I will also be running the Dark Side Half Marathon in exactly three months.)

But, at the pace I'm going now, running 13.1 miles will take me all day. And I really don't have all day to run.

Especially in a tornado.

Yes, a tornado touched down not too far from where I live well before I woke up this morning. I wouldn't have left my apartment had the weather been iffy, but it was pretty mild at 6 am. A little breezy. No rain in the forecast.

It's amazing how unpredictable the weather can be down here.

About three miles into my run, the sky became ominously dark. And the wind came out of nowhere, which gave me a nice bump in pace. So I didn't mind it.

Until a few electrical wires supporting a traffic light came down in a sea of sparks right across the street from me. As you can tell from my super consistent and even heart rate, I wasn't scared at all. #Sarcasm

I said "No thanks" and peaced out.

I felt a bit unfulfilled having to cut my run short, so I made the quick drive over to Globo Gym to work in a few more miles on the dreadmill afterwards.

90 days left

Today's Exercise:  Tornado/Treadmill Run:

M1: 14:50
M2: 15:27
M3: 14:47
M4: 16:05
M5: 15:15
M6: 15:22

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack(s)	Dinner
Spinach and cheddar omelette, coffee	Beef Stew	HC Latte	2 HB Eggs

Got myself a new droid.

Well, I guess my excitement about "sleeping in" yesterday was premature. Woke up at 4:30 again this morning.

The cool thing though is that I can see exactly how I slept! 

I get a 0.0 for deep sleep. Reminds me of my favorite scene in Animal House.

I fired my Apple Watch this week. Besides often crapping out on giving me heart rate readings regularly, it's just not a running watch. It doesn't do the things I need it to do. 

So I upgraded to a Garmin Forerunner 235. Like the Apple Watch, it has an optical heart rate monitor, gives me smart notifications, and reminds me to move when I've been sitting too long. But that's pretty much where the similarities end. The Garmin offers me:

• GPS: The Apple Watch could only record distance outdoors when I carried my phone with me. Even then, it couldn't give me mile splits - I had to also use Map My Run to get at that information. 
• Sleep tracking: Apple Watch didn't offer sleep tracking, probably because the battery life was dismal and it needed to charge every night. Maybe the Garmin can help me gather some additional insight into my sleep problems.
• All of those extra cool metrics runners salivate over like cadence and VO2 max: Oh, and I can now use Smashrun which takes all of your Garmin data and gives you interesting insights AND lets you earn fun badges. I mean, the commentary on this is fantastic:

Interested? You can create a free account and be my friend using this link

I used my Garmin outdoors for my long run yesterday, and also wore my Apple Watch for comparison. This was a mistake. Sometimes both HR readings were perfectly in sync, but the times they weren't made me really neurotic. 

I also tested out the Garmin indoors today - and, just like Apple Watch, it failed at giving accurate mileage indoors. I was doing 16+/mi on the treadmill, but the Garmin tracked me much faster. 

Anyway, as with any new device, understanding how it works, customizing it, and figuring out exactly what hole on the stupid wristband I need to use so it doesn't go sliding all over my wrist... is just taking a little bit of time. But overall, I think I'm going to be much happier with my new droid.

100 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Treadmill "run":

M1:16:12
M2:16:40

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack(s)	Dinner
3 eggs w/ spinach, coffee	3 eggs w/ spinach, tea	N/A	3 eggs w/ spinach

Light speed

Yesterday, I did another outdoor run to help calibrate my Apple Watch - it's been way off in mileage in the past. I think it did better last night, but hard to know as I ran no other apps on my phone so not entirely sure how far I went! I had heard that calibrating it outdoors while running with your phone will help with accuracy on mileage tracking on indoor treadmill, but all is still TBD.

I enjoyed running after work yesterday. Bayshore Blvd in Tampa is a fantastic place to go for a run - beautiful waterfront views, historic homes that are stunningly decorated for the holidays, and comfortable temperatures (at least at this time of year). However, it may have been a mistake to do an evening run - I might have been better served with a day off.

When I tried to go for a run this morning on the treadmill, my heart rate jacked up to 145 at a speed of 4.0 - this is just a speedwalking pace for me. I gave up after 5 minutes and switched to an easy pace on the elliptical instead.

What's at play here?

Is it that I did not allow enough recovery time in between workouts? Seems to me I shouldn't really need that much recovery running at the pace I'm currently running at.

Or is it the impact of being on Day 4 of the Maffetone Two Week Carb Intolerance test? I perhaps just don't have the energy to keep this up... it's to be expected, but I hope that it passes quickly.

One thing I did learn last night is that I'm running at practically the same pace as my husband. Nice to be able to run together instead of me leaving him in the dust... but this does not make much sense to me. His MAF HR is 10bpm lower than mine. He also hates running - where I am used to doing 29 minute 5ks and 2 hour half-marathons, he usually does 45 minute 5ks and 3 hour halfs. Showing my competitive side for a moment, but what the heck is that about?

What's the opposite of light speed? Because that's what I'm running right now.

130 days left.

Today's Exercise:  45 min elliptical, HR: 143 bpm average

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
coffee, 2 eggs with spinach	tuna salad, peppermint tea	Chili, red wine

Day 1 of a Two Week Test

I didn't get home last night from Mickey's Christmas Party until 3am, so I gave myself permission to sleep in a little bit today. Spending time at Disney made it very easy to meet my Apple Watch activity goals - check it out, it's the first day since I've had the watch that I filled all three rings for move, exercise, and standing:

AND because I was still at Disney after midnight, I got a great headstart on meeting all three of today's goals! I'm still not sure about keeping the Apple Watch - I haven't been able to do another outdoor test with my phone yet. Yesterday, I ended up using our apartment gym since the weather wasn't great for an outdoor run - turned out to be a mistake, as all three treadmills at the apartment were broken, so I had to use the elliptical.

Since I slept in today, it was too hot to run outside by the time I was ready to go, so I used the treadmill at Globo Gym. Definitely overdid it on the goodies at the party last night, so wasn't feeling breakfast and did today's run in a fasted state. So far, I'm noticing consistency - each run I'm averaging 13:50 min/mile in order to keep my heart rate in the 135-145 range. I don't know if I have the patience to keep this up (or should I say keep this down?)

Tomorrow I should be able to get up early enough to go for an outdoor run and see if I can get this Apple Watch to calibrate. I ran 4.04 miles on the treadmill today, and the watch logged 4.9 miles - way off!

Today I started the Maffetone Two Week Carbohydrate Intolerance Test. Nothing of interest to report yet - I ate meals I usually eat like eggs and chili (from this recipe - one of my favorites), and I'm probably still processing all of the sugar I ate yesterday. I know a little bit about what to expect in the next week - I've done elimination diets in the past, including a few Whole 30's. I'm anxious to see if it will have any impact on my run times in the next two weeks.

133 days left.

Today's Exercise:  55 min treadmill run, 4.04 mi, HR: 141 bpm average

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
coffee	2.5 eggs with spinach	Chili

Apple Watch

I didn't go to bed particularly late last night, didn't have much trouble sleeping, but felt exhausted this morning when I woke up. I blame two factors:

1. Poor diet this week (way too much junk food leftover from visitors over the weekend). Looking forward to getting off the sugar bend and back on track this weekend.
2. Feeling like it's an exceptionally long work week. I enjoyed only having a 3-day work week last week.

So I decided to give myself a rest day, but am feeling a bit guilty about that now. Do I need as many rest days if I'm sticking with low heart rate training? Do I need any? I've also got to decide soon on what I'm doing with the Apple Watch. It's really hard for me to make a call on it since I've never owned a Garmin running watch or Fitbit/Jawbone/other activity tracker - so I guess the question is, what am I really looking for?

From reviews I've read online*, it's certainly not up to the standards that serious runners expect, especially without working GPS. But I'm not ready to invest in the Garmin Forerunner because my ultimate goal is to STOP running after the Star Wars Half. I want something that is going to continue to be useful to me beyond April.

As an activity tracker, it's great, but way more expensive than a Fitbit and doesn't give you the sleep tracking because you have to charge it overnight - although I hear the sleep tracking isn't accurate anyway, and the heart rate monitors on those new Fitbits are not as accurate as the Apple Watch.  There are some features that I think are helpful in the activity tracker:

1. "Move" goal (pink ring) - This is customizable. I have a goal set to burn 600 calories a day. I believe the watch tracks this through a combination of your movement and heart rate. I have yet to meet this goal, even on days that I exercise.

2. "Exercise" goal (green ring) - Exercise for 30 minutes every day. This is not customizable. The watch logs any activity that gets your heart rate up as exercise.

3. "Stand" goal - Move around for at least one minute every hour for 12 hours a day. I have also yet to achieve this goal, but it took me a while to figure out what counts as 'standing' (it's not just standing - you have to walk around). I appreciate getting reminders throughout the day to get up and move. As a home-based employee, there really isn't much reason to leave my desk - so I don't. And I think I'll eventually pay the health price for that.

Here's a snapshot from the middle of the day yesterday:

Of course, there are other features of the Apple Watch besides heart rate monitoring and activity tracking, Apparently I can pay for things with my watch. If I need to know if it's going to rain tomorrow night while I'm at Disney, I can just look at my wrist (it's not). Getting wrist-based notifications on Facebook messages and Groupon deals is nice and all, but I just don't really care about them right now.

Decision to keep the watch is still pending whether I can get accurate mileage tracking running outdoors tomorrow using my phone.

* Here are links to some good reviews and descriptions of the watch as an activity tracker:
http://www.mcelhearn.com/how-accurate-is-the-apple-watch-as-a-fitness-tracker/
http://www.imore.com/apple-watch-activity-tracking-5-tips-you-need-know

135 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Rest

The Fun in my Run

I read these "Running Tweets that Will Make You Laugh" today - and laugh I did because I've definitely thought some of these things over my running 'career.'

Today marks day 3 of low heart rate running. I really hope this works... because I'm enjoying my workouts for a change, not thinking this one:

When my alarm clock buzzes at 6 to wake me up, I no longer pull the sheets over my head and give myself forced pep talks to get out of bed and go punish myself at the gym. Rather, I look forward to welcoming the day with an easy walk/jog - "wog," if you will - that leaves me feeling energized to take on a full workday.

I won't know for sure if this is working for me until I get my nutrition under control and start implementing the MAF tests monthly. And who knows if I can really be certain if I'll do my half marathon in under 2:00:00 using this approach? But like I said yesterday, I'm enjoying this for now.

The Apple Watch definitely didn't calibrate when I did my outdoor run yesterday, because it told me I ran over 4 miles again today (it was 3.24 according to the treadmill). I'm going to try again to run outside tomorrow with my phone, but will leave Map My Run turned off and take the same route I did yesterday. I'm debating what it means for me if I can't get the mileage right - I'm enjoying a lot of the features of being a smartwatch owner, and I can still continue to use mileage from the MMR app on my phone when I'm outside (I use it no matter what for music anyway). Here's hoping tomorrow's outdoor run goes well - if not, it might be time to try one of the other options I've been considering like the new Garmin or the Polar A360.

136 days left.

Today's Exercise:  45 min treadmill run, 3.24 mi, HR: 140 bpm average

How SLOW can you go?

I took my run this morning outdoors to try to calibrate my Apple Watch using my phone's GPS, but I don't think it worked very well. I turned on Map My Run so that I could compare the reading to what my watch said. When MMR notified me that I had hit a mile, the watch only read .95. By the end of my run, the Apple Watch was 1/10th of a mile behind MMR.

So I'm not sure what to do about that. Maybe it was a mistake using MMR - can only one app at a time use the phone's GPS? I asked Google, but couldn't find anything about it. I'm thinking I'll try a treadmill run again tomorrow and see if I get a more consistent reading than I did two days ago. If not, I'll run outside again on Thursday and take the same route, but won't turn MMR on.

One thing remained the same - keeping my heart rate between 135-145 bpm is hard! Just like Sunday, I felt like I was pretty much just speedwalking by the end of my run.

I know the other big component of using this approach is nutrition. I'll be starting his two week carbohydrate restriction test on Saturday - conveniently after I go to Mickey's Christmas party at the Magic Kingdom Friday night, and before a few other holiday parties occur. It's perfect timing, so no excuses for me to fall off the wagon!

137 days left.

Today's Exercise:  60 min outdoor run, 4.08 mi, HR: 144 bpm average

Am I Doing this Right?

What happened to my long weekend? Sad that I had to welcome Monday again so quickly. The time flew by - I didn't even have time to check in yesterday. I think it might have been the first day since I started this blog that I missed writing a post!

It was the good type of busy though - one where I got to welcome friends I haven't seen in ages in the morning, still hit the gym and do some window shopping in the afternoon, spend some time with my mother in the evening, and then catch up with good friends back up north via FaceTime before bed.

I also have had some time to play with my new Apple Watch over the last two days.  (Update - I didn't get the Polar A360 as I said I was going to on Black Friday.  The coupon code didn't work.) This allowed me to give heart rate training as suggested by the Maffetone Method a try yesterday. Here are some initial observations:

• I had been warned that I'd need to go slow, but I never realized HOW slow. Normally, I run between a 6.0-6.5 mph pace on the treadmill. After just a few seconds at that pace, my heart rate jumped up into the 160 range. I ended up needing to keep my pace 4.2-4.5 mph in order to stay in the 135-145 range that the Maffetone Method suggests I need to be in. For me, this feels like just a tick above speedwalking.
• There's no way for me to really know whether or not the Apple Watch is accurately monitoring my heart rate, but it provided readings consistent with the handle bar heart rate monitor on the treadmill I was using. This, of course, really means nothing because they both could just be plain wrong.
• The Apple Watch needs to be calibrated outdoors using your phone's GPS before getting accurate treadmill readings (the Exercise app told me I did over 4 miles in the 45 minutes I was on the treadmill, when it was closer to 3 miles). I'm going to try running outside tomorrow with my phone to see if I get a better reading, and then try the treadmill again on Wednesday to see if there is a change.
• I still have a lot of questions about proceeding with this type of training. I noticed I was a bit sore after running at this slow pace for 45 minutes. I am not typically sore after a run - is going more slowly the cause? How long will it take before I can start running at my former speed? Do I need to still incorporate "rest days" into my training, or should I do this every day?

We'll keep the experiment going for a while, but so far, I'm enjoying changing things up a bit.

138 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Active Rest Day

Black Friday

I typically have to work Black Friday - I work in financial services, and when the stock market is open for business, so is my company. However, I requested the day off this year, anticipating that I'd be in my new house and that I could use the day to get some deals on furniture and other home needs.

Well, we all know how that worked out.

Since I'm not quite ready to purchase home goods yet, I did use the time to look around for deals on gifts for my family - and, of course, for me. I've been looking for a good heart rate monitor/smartwatch combo and have narrowed it down to 2 - Polar's A360 and the Apple Watch. I've decided to get both and try them both out for a few days. Seems frivolous, but Target is giving me a $100 Gift Card for buying an Apple Watch on Black Friday, and I have a coupon code for 20% off the Polar courtesy of this Gift Guide for Runners.

If you are still out there shopping for the runner in your life, I have a few more guides to share, although I have to say runners are probably the easiest group to shop for. I get pretty stoked about getting a decent pair of socks! But if you still need the help, check out:

30 Holiday Gift Ideas for Athletes
Active Holiday Gift Guides

What are you hoping for this season? Anything on these lists strike your fancy? Feel free to leave a comment here, maybe your significant other is reading this right now and can pick up the hint.

141 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Rest (in between shopping!)

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
still full	Salad Bar	Still full

Heart Rate training

TGIF. Even though I thought I'd be energized for a morning workout because of the simple fact it's Friday, I wasn't. I chose to sleep in again. Wondering how I can make sleeping in NOT an option?

I thought I would make up the workout by using my apartment complex gym over lunch time, but I got sidetracked researching fitness trackers and smartwatches with built in heart rate monitors instead. I'm looking into incorporating the Maffetone Method into my training plan because of a comment someone left yesterday.

I have heard of Dr. Maffetone before, mostly because his articles pop up in nutrition circles I follow. Following his guidelines means that all of my future runs should sustain the same heart rate (based on his formula, mine should be between 135-145) for the duration of my run. It also means that I will be running very slowly when I start - but that eventually, I will run faster while exerting the same level of effort.

Makes a great deal of sense, right?

There are other guidelines as I understand it - like I have to perform very little anaerobic activity (no more weight lifting?) and eat a low carb / high fat diet. If I want to do this, I really have to start now as it will take a few months to get to a good aerobic base.

A huge road block is that I don't currently have a good way to track my heart rate. I researched what's out there and am leaning towards the Apple Watch as I hear it has an accurate monitor plus I usually run with my iPhone anyway for music (and to use the GPS feature of MMR when I'm running outdoors). But I hate the thought of sweating all over a high tech gadget like that. I am giving myself a week to make a decision so that I can buy something at Black Friday or Cyber Monday prices.

Plus  you can make it look like this.

Anybody have any recommendations? I'd prefer to stay away from chest straps if possible - I used to have a Polar heart rate monitor and found it to be pretty uncomfortable. Plus I remember being confused by the calibration instructions - so I'm also looking for something that is "wear and go."

Got a date with the Hunger Games tonight - then a date with the treadmill for a long run tomorrow.

148 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Unplanned rest

PWO	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
N/A	Eggs with spinach, coffee	Tuna, salad, pumpkin tea	Chili