Heartbeats

I took a couple of runs outside yesterday and today, as well as on Monday. Wednesday I ran on the treadmill. I'm upping my endurance, but the first race is just three weeks off, and there is no way I'm as trained as I'd like to be for it.  But, there is nothing quite as motivating to me as a deadline, which is why I signed up in the first place. It's also why I actually got out there yesterday and today.  I know myself. These things can actually work.

What I learned from Monday's run and yesterday's was that it was really hard to push myself to get the heart rate up. Both runs peaked at a 144 beats per minute heart rate, and averaged much lower (there are walking intervals included there.) On Monday, breath was the limiting factor. Yesterday, besides gasping for breath, my legs felt like lead. After my little emergency room incident yesterday, plus the leaden legs, I was thinking about giving myself a pass today. When they took my blood pressure in the ER yesterday, it was higher than I've ever seen it. Plus, one thing all exercise books agree on:  the older you are, the longer it takes to recover. From anything.

But I headed up to the boat to do chores. Originally, I was thinking about kayaking, but 15+ knot winds and a very sore finger convinced me not to venture out. Instead, I went for a jog around the community. I wanted to stretch my legs, and right now walking seems a bit boring, too time consuming. Might as well kick it up into a run.

I had worn flexible pants and some casual trainers, thinking I might do a run, so I didn't even bother to change. That meant more bounce, but it was ok.  What really startled me was the heart rate.  It went immediately to 165 bpm. What's up with that?  I didn't feel bad, so I jogged on and looked at it again. Slightly higher. This seemed so odd to me, that while I thought maybe it was just reading wrong, I slowed to a walk while staring at the numbers on my wrist. They plummeted, in seconds falling below 120. OK then, I started up the jog again. In about the same number of seconds, it was up over 165!  I thought about it, I felt like I was working but I had plenty of breath, and so I just kept going.  Over the course of the next few minutes, I kept up a steady pace and the numbers on my wrist fell down to around 140 bpm - right around where they should be.

This loop is totally flat which is a real bonus compared to my neighborhood. I pretty much kept up a steady jog for the whole thing, a mile and a half. I was not totally blown by the end, either. So the training is making some progress.

Looking at the recorded stats uploaded from my fancy device, it says I hit a heart rate of 170 beats per minute. My theoretical maximum heart rate is 171. I've seen no indication anywhere else that the monitor is off base, so I'm not declaring "instrument error". I think the heart rate really did soar, and then settle down. I am curious why my body would go to such an extreme.  Hmm.....  It doesn't really matter, though, as long as it settled down and let me get it the run.