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

[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

[tattiefritter]

Deborajen, its not so bad at this time of year but yes, inhaling bugs is just horrible.

I did 5.76 miles yesterday according to my new toy (which I am in love with). It was 2 miles easy then about 2.5 miles of fartleks then a mile or so of easy to cool down a bit. I tried to keep my pace for the first two miles down to about 9 mins per mile which was difficult (a lot easier for the last mile though ). Then did various length fartleks and got to feel what 7mm pace felt like - ouch, there is no way I could keep that up for any length of time yet. I find the pace feature really useful, more so than heart rate at the beginning of the run - I also noticed that as soon as I switched my Ipod on my pace increased as I listen to dance music.

Got 5 miles easy today - going to aim for 8:45mm/9mm pace - as got sports massage this evening. The only drawback with the RS200 is I keep looking at the watch to check pace and I just know I'm going to run into a lamppost or something.

That will give me a total of about 17 miles for the week.