Blogroll the Fifth

Remember that hot air balloon ride I was supposed to take in January? My husband and I had rescheduled it for today. We were up and out the door by 4:45, at the meetup spot with the balloonist by 5:30, waivers signed and good to head to the launch site by 6, and then on our way back home by 8.

Everything happened on schedule... except for the actual balloon ride.

Unexpected winds interrupted our plans. Boo.

Alright, that's not true. We'll try again in another month or so.

Anyway, here's another roundup of my favorite relevant things on the interwebs from this week:

Train Like an Athlete:

• Why some runs just suck.
• Should you be worried about your running form? I'm worried about mine!
• Building a running base - note this advocates a different approach from what I have been doing over the last few months.
• Are high levels of intense exercise damaging your heart?

Think Like an Athlete:

• What you should read based on your Zodiac sign. As a Leo, I'm supposed to read Gone with the Wind*, but I'd much rather be a Virgo.
• Moms and body image issues - Mom, don't read too much into this, just thought it was interesting.
• 14 free personality tests, including a few Emotional Intelligence (EQ) resources.
• Slideshow: 10 ways to stop stress.

Eat Like an Athlete:

• One person's story about how giving up alcohol for 30 days changed her. Even after my Whole 30 is over, I'm planning on staying dry until after the half marathon.
• Mindful eating as a weight-loss strategy. 
• Why people choose to go low carb - I can certainly share that I have better craving control eating the way that I do now.
• Foodie Bucket List: I'm lucky enough to say that I can check almost everything off on this list, except for South American fare. My opinion? Pho is worth the splurge, beignets are not (unless they can figure out a way for the powdered sugar to stay on the pastry and not get into my hair.)

Sleep Like an Athlete:

• Where does your state rank in terms of adequate sleep?
• 20 really good tips for sleeping better.
• Why evening routines are just as important as morning routines.

*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.

Today's exercise: Rest

Blogroll the Fourth

11 miles yesterday left me a little more sore than I thought it would, so I took a break today. Gotta go help my mom figure out how to install a new TiVo tonight (yes, I'm pretty sure she's their only customer), so here's another roundup of all the stuff I thought was relevant this week.

Train Like an Athlete:

You have another shot at getting one of these medals...

• Disney re-opened registration for the Star Wars Dark Side Half. So now you have another opportunity to join and see me revel in sub 2:00 glory or wither under the crushing agony of defeat. 
• The running trifecta - more about food, training pace, and stress.
• To-do's if you are chained to a desk all day like me.
• Good advice from a first-time half-marathoner. Except for #5 - I ran my first half without any fuel, you can do it too.
• Why Some Runs Just Suck. Spoiler alert: Warming up and recovery are important.
• The Biggest 10k's in the country - I did the Inaugural Across the Bay 10k (#6 on the list) a few years ago, big thumbs up.
• 10 Tips for Becoming a Morning Exerciser - I made the transition from evening to morning training a few months ago and have less stress because of it. Hoping I can continue once Daylight Savings Time begins.

Think Like an Athlete:

• Why everything is my husband's fault. Not really.

Eat Like an Athlete:

• 9 Ways You're Sabotaging Your Weight-Loss - with a nod to getting enough sleep.
• And another article about losing weight that leads with the importance of getting sleep.
• Why having more fun may end my emotional eating problems.
• It's ok to eat the same thing every day - which is why you see a lot of eggs, chili, and tuna in my meal logs.

Sleep Like an Athlete:

• See what happens when you don't sleep.

54 days left.

Today's Exercise: Rest

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
3 Eggs w spinach, coffee	Chili w/ guac, TJ's Kraut	2 tbsp coconut butter, EPIC bison bites	chicken apple sausage, cauliflower, mint tea

Bitter. Cold.

52 degrees sounds warm.

I like to squeeze as much running as I can in before work starts, so I buy myself some extra time by preparing what I can the night before. I'll check the weather to see what I need for an outdoor run, lay out my running clothes and shoes, pack a gym bag if I'm planning on using the treadmill instead of running outdoors, and make sure my heart rate monitor is accessible.

Last night, I saw the forecast for 5:30 am today indicated it would be about 46 degrees, so I added my hat and gloves to my pile of running gear. I thought about possibly doing another treadmill run instead of an outdoor run, but figured I could handle cooler temps. Considering I'd just run in near freezing cold on Sunday, 46 degrees actually sounded quite pleasant.

My alarm went off this morning and I stepped outside to walk my dog. It was right on the border of being warm enough that I knew a hat and gloves would feel sweltering during my run, yet cold enough that I'd still be uncomfortable without them.

I decided to leave them behind - I figured that maybe after my warm-up, my fingers and toes would feel a little less numb.

Even when the sun came up about an hour into my run, it was still too cold. And - just like on Sunday - I had a really hard time getting warm again today even after my run was over.

Tomorrow is a rest day, so I'll get another shot at running outside on Saturday morning - looks like it will be 54 degrees again then. I'll plan on wearing my hat and gloves, and just carry them if it gets too hot.

Anyway, I'd like to blame the cold again for another crappy "run", but I'm really just starting to feel like maybe this approach is just not working for me. These "wogging" paces are incredibly frustrating, I feel like I have to slow down to a walk every two minutes, and I'm just not getting anywhere. I want to run, damn it. A 6 mile run with a warm-up and cool-down should not take me two hours.

Here's someone like me...

...except she seems to be meeting all of her goals. Yes, she trains in lower heart rate zones, but also incorporates faster runs. She's smashed her weight loss goals not by vilifying any one category of food (looking at you, carbs), but by counting calories. She eats what she loves, but makes sure it fits within her calorie range for the day.

She also has anxiety but manages it with medication. That's the only thing I really don't want to do.

I'm going to see how things go with Saturday's run first, but I might be ready to make some changes.

65 days left.

Today's Exercise: Arctic run

M1: 15:49
M2: 15:50
M3: 15:58
M4: 15:19
M5: 15:02

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
3 eggs with spinach, coffee	TJ's chicken burger and baby spinach, tea	TJ's Kraut, 1 HB eggs, HC Latte	Chipotle Carnitas salad w/ guac, TJ's 72% cacao dark chocolate

Never tell me the odds.

Another runner I follow (Katie from Runs for Cookies) was featured on a podcast at Runners Connect a few days ago, so I spent some time checking out some of the resources on that site. Found this article:

Is a High-Fat Diet Healthy for Runners?

To summarize, the author calls it a fad, suggests there is limited research to support it, and acknowledges that maybe it is best for ultramarathon runners only. The article also points out a high fat diet isn't going to help you go fast.

But I don't think that's quite right.  Check out this guy, a doctor/athlete/human guinea pig who found through his own self-experimentation that low carb does actually enhance performance at all intensity levels.

As I understand it, a high fat diet helps you go the distance - because you have unlimited fat stores to tap into for fuel. The other energy source that helps you go fast - glycogen - is limited. But it's not like your body forgets how to burn sugar to go faster. When you drift above your maximum aerobic heart rate, sugar burning accelerates and fat burning gets pushed aside accordingly. 

Which is why training yourself to go faster at a lower heart rate is so important...

So I'm going to keep eating my eggs and coconut oil, run really slowly with really tiny increases in pace, and hope the odds are ever in my favor for April.

102 days left.

Today's Exercise:  Outdoor"run":
M1:16:23
M2:15:18
M3: 15:40

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

Full of surprises.

Most of today's post is pre-written. I'm at my alma mater's bowl game today, and in order to get here, I had to be up and out the door at 3:30 this morning, and probably won't be getting home until late evening.

Anyway, my mother told me yesterday that I looked like I had lost weight. 

Comments like this drive a lot of conflicted emotions in me. 

It's not really a secret that losing weight has always been an important goal of mine, so of course my first thought was "Awesome."

And then I denied it. How could she see a change that I don't? Maybe she was just saying that because she thinks it was something I wanted to hear. Maybe she sees everything I've been doing in the past month as an effort to be thin, not an effort to achieve my half marathon goal. 

And then I feared it. I haven't really managed weight loss in a very healthy way in the past. My mother sees me weekly, and if she's seen a dramatic change in just one week, that's way too fast. It can't possibly be sustainable. 

Can it?

Eating more and running less is the formula for losing weight? 

Why didn't anybody tell me this eight years ago?

No, what everyone told me can be found in this article. Run faster to increase your calorie burn. "Limit" junk food intake (but, of course because you are running, there's nothing wrong with having a treat every once in a while). False and false.

Actually, the most solid tip in that article is "Be Your Own Expert." This whole journey has been an experiment on myself, and I'm still figuring things out. I'm not my own expert yet but have gotten much closer in these last 35 days than in my prior 35 years of life.

105 days left.

Today's Exercise: Rest

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
3 hard boiled eggs, coffee	Prosciutto cucumber roll, wine	more wine	More eggs

The Force

These intense, positive, powerful feelings I have been having lately can only be due to one thing.

The Force is strong with me.

Alright, I know. I just feel fantastic because low carb, high fat (LCHF) eating has finally given me a level of control over unhealthy behaviors I have been fighting for years.

But I'm not Jedi level yet.

Considering Christmas and Sugar are as tight as Chewy and Han, I'll give myself credit for maybe escaping a few Tie Fighters. Even so, I'm all too aware that it has only been less than a week since my last binge.

I read another story of self-experimentation about a marathoner who switched to a high fat diet. Spoiler alert: She PR'd but didn't meet her goal. She also concluded that LCHF dieting was unsustainable.

Her experience was just that - her own experiment where n=1. I'm not going to read too much into her conclusions on LCHF diets - maybe she just didn't want to keep her diet going as badly as I do because she doesn't have a messed up eating disorder.

But what I do intend on taking from her story is that simply changing my relationship with food is not by itself going to get me to a sub 2:00:00 Star Wars Half marathon. "Running" 15 minute miles now isn't going to translate into running 9:05 minute miles in April without reintroducing some carbs (and NOT binging) and without getting more than four hours of sleep in a night. I'm working out a plan now to try phasing carbs back in after Saturday.

Why Saturday? I'm attending my alma mater's bowl game here in Florida.

You thought Christmas was a carb nightmare? Try Penn State tailgating. That's like the Sith Lord of carby events.

Sorry about all of the Star Wars references. I saw the movie again last night and it was just as amazingly awesome as the first time around.

110 days left.

Today's Exercise: Rest

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
3 eggs with spinach, coffee	Tuna salad, peppermint tea	HC latte	TJ's chicken burger and butternut squash/spinach

Running Low on Magic

I really need to start sleeping. After waking up yet again at 3am, I can hardly pull my thoughts together for this post.

I really am starting to look like this too.

Google tells me others who have gone the low carb way have trouble sleeping. Glad to know it's not just me.

I love everything else about the way I feel when I'm eating high fat. Just check out this euphoria. Yet if I want to solve my sleep challenges, everything points me back towards adding more carbs. The only problem is that my brain does not seem to differentiate between angel carbs like sweet potatoes and devil carbs like Oreos. I learned in the past week it's going to be tricky for me to go back without engaging in unhealthy binging behavior.

When I passed on a strawberry at breakfast today, my mother made a comment about how my diet is too restrictive if it doesn't allow fruit. I explained to her that it's a restriction I've placed on myself until I can figure out a way to eat a little bit of food containing natural sugars and starches... and then stop. She let it go, thankfully.

Before I started testing out the Maffetone Method back in November, I'd meet my mom every Saturday or Sunday morning for spin class, and then we'd have breakfast. After reading that I'd need to engage in lower heart rate training, I still met my mother at the gym but opted for the treadmill instead of spin. I had been feeling a little bit guilty about this - like I abandoned her - and decided to join her for spin today. I thought I'd be able to just keep resistance low and do my own thing to stay in my MAF heart rate range.

False. I could not get a good rhythm going at all.

So I'm thinking I really am going to have to abandon her until the Star Wars Half is over. Hopefully I'll be forgiven. The family has been supportive of the changes I have made over the past month, but because they don't seem to have the same struggles I do - and therefore don't read and follow the same circles I do -  I never expect them to fully understand.

111 days left.

Today's Exercise: Spin

Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Omelette, coffee	Chili	walnuts, HC latte	Not sure yet... going back to see Star Wars tonight!

Everyday I'm Shuffling

I read up on Overtraining Syndrome last night - and have decided to drop my target heart rate to 130-140 for my runs going forward. Given how I used to approach running - as far as I can go, as fast as I can go, as frequently as I can go - it's not a stretch to think that my slower race times over the years could be a result of OTS. I've got all the symptoms listed in Stage 1 of being overtrained, so... better safe than sorry. Lower heart rate it is.

Sleep went mildly better last night. Fell asleep but woke up at 4, all "Ok, day, bring it on!" I didn't get up, though - tried to get back to sleep, but had some weird annoying bicep twitch going on in my right arm. Don't know what that's about.

Finally I rolled out of bed at 6 to get my run in... except I couldn't run. I did my 15 minute warm-up at about 110 bpm, and then picked up the pace. Even the tiniest shuffle caused my heart rate to jump out of range. So today's "run" was really a speedwalk. Same thing happened to me on Tuesday, and I ended up using the elliptical machine instead of the treadmill. This is going to be problematic if this keeps up for my brand here:

And then I've gotta go changing my email address and Twitter handle. "DarkSideWalker" doesn't have the same ring to it.

Adding to my frustration today is the $!%@# Apple Watch. About halfway into my run today, it stopped giving me a heart rate reading, just "measuring" for extended periods of time. I tried stopping and restarting the Exercise app and loosening the watch band (I had it as tight as it could go) to no avail. I then wiped down the sensor and that seemed to work. Come on, Apple Watch. I know you can do lots of things, but I really need you to do this ONE thing for me reliably. Cooperate please? Tomorrow is your last chance or it's back to Target you go.

This weekend will bring a lot of great holiday-themed runs. I thought about doing the Palm Harbor race just for fun since that isn't too far. My first 5k was a holiday-themed run in NJ - the entry fee was simply an unwrapped toy for charity, and it was tons of fun. I ended up doing it every year that I lived in NJ, so I feel a bit sad to be missing out this year. But I think I'll pass on the race since I'm really not "racing" anything at this point.

128 days left.

Today's Exercise:  1 hr outdoor run, 119 bpm (not thinking this is accurate).

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
coffee, 3 eggs with spinach	tuna salad, peppermint tea	Omelette- ham, peppers. Eggs!!!

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

Truly Tested

I got a bit of a later start this morning since my husband and I wanted to check out the Tampa monthly farmer's market today, which is right near Globo Gym. I thought it still felt pleasant enough at 9am to run outside, but at about 8 minutes in to my run, I knew it was a mistake - it was too hot and I was having difficulty keeping my heart rate in the 135-145 range. I was really hoping to make another good attempt at calibrating the watch, but the heat drove me back inside to the treadmill. I'll give outdoor running another try tomorrow, as I know it's usually cool enough to do so at 6am.

The market today tested my commitment in staying on the Maffetone Two Week Carb Test - there were plenty of tempting goodies, but I never really felt like I was missing out. I navigated the market like a pro, staying enthusiastic about my fresh/local veggies and treating myself to some beet chips.

Day 2 is coming to a close with no low carb side effects, except I did find myself getting a little bit annoyed at all the junk my husband consumed at the market. I just gotta keep reminding myself that these are my goals and this is my journey - not his. But come on - did he really have to buy all of that fudge?

132 days left.

Today's Exercise:  45 min treadmill/outdoor run, HR: 144 bpm average

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
coffee, 2 eggs with spinach	tuna salad, beet chips	Chili

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

Christmas Comes Early

Tonight - off to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom where I am going to drink hot cocoa to my heart's content.

Because tomorrow begins the Maffetone Two Week Carbohydrate Intolerance Test. No more sugar.

I'm actually looking forward to it because right now I'm really not feeling very well. I had a lot of difficulty waking up the past two mornings, and even greeted today with a headache. I actually anticipate the headaches to persist at the beginning of the test - anytime I dramatically reduce carbohydrates in my diet, I get nagging headaches. But I know they are only temporary - my body will adapt.

Sugar is definitely a drug I'm having trouble quitting. I've got a serious sweet tooth and wish that some of the research and media attention sugar is getting now was available when I was a child. I grew up knowing the dangers of cigarettes and recreational drugs - never did those. I wonder if kids today will grow up thinking the same things about sugar.

The near future payoff for me is becoming 'fat adapted' so that this method of training for the Star Wars Half marathon actually has a shot at working. If I can keep that in mind, I think I can do it - we're all wired to look for immediate gratification, right? The longer term benefits - like decreasing risk of heart attack, dementia, and diabetes (and more, as outlined in "The Surprising Benefits of Cutting Back on Sugar") shouldn't be neglected - I just don't think they are as compelling when a cookie is staring you in the face.

Like these free cookies and cocoa here at MK!

134 days left.

Today's Exercise:  30 minute elliptical

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

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