Long and Less Long Runs: 3-26 to 4-1

[tattiefritter]

Forgot to update yesterday. Ended up running a total of just over 6 miles. The first two miles were really spent calibrating the footpod for my new Polar SD200. Once that was done I set off again on a run, the combination of beautiful spring day and new toy meant I did another 4.5 miles at 8.27mm average. The reason its so fast is that there is a pace setting on my new watch and I was playing! Legs felt good by the end and they felt good when on the climbing wall last night as well and they feel fine this morning. So I am almost up to running for an hour again already which puts me in a bit of a quandary - I need to find an event to train for otherwise I'll get bored. I'm struggling to find a 10K that isn't in the next two weeks! I need to have a good search then plan some running. My week is currently panning out as follows:

Monday: Day off (work and training) loads of gardening
Tuesday: 6 mile run lunchtime and climbing PM
Wednesday: PM 2 hour MTB ride (start in daylight )
Thursday: 5 mile run with short fartleks lunchtime, yoga class pm
Friday: 5 mile easy run lunchtime, sports massage PM
Saturday: Rest (more house type work)
Sunday: MTB ride (3 hour min)

My winter commuter is currently broken and my road bike not ready yet so no commuting to work for me this week . Next week will be similar but I'll hopefully get to ride in one day and increase one of the five milers to 6 then the week after I will back off, lets see if I can.

[yellow]

TF, I love getting beat up by the massage therapist.

Mixture of snow/rain today so I ran 4 miles on the dreadmill and did my usual weight workout. I got a call from my doc today...I had my routine on Monday and it seems I flunked the urinanalysis and almost flunked the iron. I was told to "not exercise for 2 days and then come in for a recheck" on my urinanalysis. I've flunked before, so I know what this is about. But 2 days of no exercise? Is she CRAZY??? The iron thing surprised me, though. I did get thumbs up for all my weight bearing exercise (including running!) and cholesterol. And I got the usual calcium warning (extra harsh since I pretty much avoid all of the foods on the "high calcium foods" list) and pretty much flunked my bone density test 2 years ago.

I'm on a plane and in airports most of tomorrow and in meetings all day Friday. If I'm lucky I'll get to run on Fri eve in San Diego but for some reason I'm thinking that I'll be subjected to peer pressure to engage in the usual drinking and networking that goes along with these conferences. Hopefully the hotel will have a "workout" room with free weights...

ta ta until next week!

[Deborajen]

Did 5 miles this evening - 3 miles of tempo with a mile of warm-up and a mile of cool-down. Will try to do two miles on Friday and 8 on Sunday. Saturday is gym day - weights and rowing machine, and tomorrow is strength workout at home and maybe a short bike ride.

Does anyone else make a big effort to breathe through the nose instead of the mouth when running/biking? I've heard it's better to breathe through your nose but didn't think it was that big of a deal. Now I just read in Runner's World that breathing through your nose is more "relaxing" and helps you control your form. I breathed through my nose most of my run today and focused on keeping a steady pace, and I was surprised to find out I'd completed my mileage a little faster than I'd expected - ? Not a huge difference, but maybe this is a detail I shouldn't have been overlooking - ?

Deb

[Wahine]

Deb, breathing through your nose tends to get people to breath more into the lower lobes of the lungs and to use their diaphragm more. That's a good thing, it improves oxygen exchange so your blood should be able pick up more oxygen per breath. But you can only do this up to a certain level. With practice, I can breath through my nose (both in and out) in my zone 1 and 2. By zone 3 I can breath in through my nose but I have to breath out through my mouth. Zone 4 is all through the mouth.

I like nose breathing, it helps me to monitor my effort level and forces me to be more efficient while I run. I don't think it's made me any faster though.

[tattiefritter]

I also try to breathe through my nose as much as possible, it means I'm not working too hard and is definitely more relaxing. The point where I change from solely nose breathing to needing help from mouth breathing is always pretty consistent no matter what I'm doing - about 162/163. On long runs I always try to breathe through my nose all the time. It also means your less likley to inhale any flying bugs.

[rocknrollgirl]

Howdy running girls.

I traded my normal mid -week interval run for a hill run on the trails before mt biking last night. It was a tough run, but I am starting to feel the payoff of all of the intervals.

It was bout 3.5 miles.

[Deborajen]

Wahine, interesting description about nose breathing increasing use the lower lobes of the lung and the diaphragm and the blood being able to pick up more oxygen per breath. Nose breathing felt like it helped my posture and gave me a more "relaxed" feeling with my efforts. Not a big thing, but the little things do add up, especially over distance.

Tattiefritter, you're not kidding about not inhaling bugs. I like to run on a path that follows the river and there are sometimes lots of gnats. They go straight for the teeth and the eyes - ick!

Deb

[alpinerabbit]

Finally back in the woods... the slight hangover from a party last night did not combine well with a first run in 3 weeks.

We lasted about 35 mins total with some goofing off on the trailside exercise stations. I cannot to a pull-up for the life of me. DBF will coach me until I can.... he promised.

Hip is no worse than before. Will keep going easy.

[Grog]

We lasted about 35 mins total with some goofing off on the trailside exercise stations. I cannot to a pull-up for the life of me. DBF will coach me until I can.... he promised.

Humm that's pretty cool I wish we had those around here! Maybe there's a park somewhere where there's monkey bars? It would make a nice distraction from running running running...