Friday, December 18, 2009

Test Run #2

I had my second test run this morning. Last week I had my first "benchmark" run so I would have an objective baseline for comparison. See my previous post for a description of the run, the original benchmark data, and my goals. Over the coming weeks, all of my statistics should get better. Once I have a bit more data, I plan on plotting the progress too (unlike that fake set of charts & graphs in the picture). Well, here are today's stats:

Friday, December 18, 2009
3 miles @ 8:00 pace
Average HR = 150 (-5 beats)
Peak HR = 158 (-7 beats)
Resting HR = 56 (+2 beats)
Weight = 176 (+2 pounds)

Sort of a mixed bag. I certainly didn't expect to GAIN two pounds over the course of ONE week! And the resting heart rate going up 2 beats isn't great either. This week at work has been very busy and stressful so that may account for the heart rate increase...and the constant eating leading to an extra 2 pounds. Things will calm down at work after this weekend so I expect a restful heart rate next week. I need to pay attention to my eating habits since this is the holiday season and crappy food is everywhere.

Now the good news...my average heart rate and peak heart rate both went down for the same 3-mile treadmill run! That's awesome. This past week of training wasn't very hard. I didn't have a single run longer than about 7 miles. I'll have more long runs over the next week. I'm happy with the running progression, but disturbed by the increased resting HR and weight. It's still early so there is no need to panic.

2 comments:

Tom Rice said...

"Crappy food is everywhere." Boy, ain't that the truth. Did you and Jeff run at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday?

Chris Ⓥ said...

Oh yes. We have that Tues/Thurs early morning run down now--4 in a row. We finish and it's still dark! At least this week was warmer than last week. I'm psyched. The Tues/Thur easy run keeps me motivated and accountable (and allows for recovery). Then I throw in the Friday test run and some longer weekend trail runs and I'm set. Wednesday is going to be a speed session--not sure what or where, but I need a bit of fast running thrown in to make the 8:00 pace feel even easier (it feels pretty comfortable right now).