In the pink

 July 10, 2014   Plan:  4k steady  Actual:  4k intervals

Lovely conditions for a short run today.  I'm still kind of hating the 5am wake up - today was truly a test of will to get my ass out of bed.   But I was supposed to be going to dinner with a friend tonight so I knew there wouldn't be time to run afterwards.  As it turned out my friend had to cancel so I could have run, but in the end it all worked out for the best.

5am is early, yo.  Like, crazy early.  Thankfully the sun is up by this time - for now, anyway - and the temps aren't too bad.  But one look at the Nike summary to the left tells the story - 10 degrees at 5:14 am and according to them, it's still dark out, hence the moon!  Eeps.  

But running in these temps with hardly anyone else out on the road is its own kind of bliss.  And today I was feeling good and really enjoyed the run.   Oh - there was a 3k run, I believe, on the schedule for yesterday but I skipped it.  Three nights in a row last week made my legs a bit sore so I decided I could go without this week and will reevaluate the Wednesday run next week.

Wore my new Saucony shirt that I got at the outlet and sweet mary mother am I in love with it!  I know that's silly to say but man, when you find a shirt you love to run it you hold on to it for dear life! 


Can't really explain what it is about this one but it feels like I'm wearing nothing at all.  It doesn't stick in weird places, the white parts (side of arms and the stripe in the back - you can see it reflected in the mirror) give me fantastic ventilation, and it's so crazy bright no one is going to miss me.

And....

...it perfectly matches my beautiful shoes.


 

Aren't they gorgeous?  I know I showed off my new Glycerin 12s the other day, which I also love, but these babies will always have my heart.  When I first got the 11s they were blue - that was the only option in Canada.  I was a mega sad panda the day I tried on those shoes.  Blue?  Nothing about me says blue!

But they feel like slippers - a veritable dream.  So I had to buy them, despair and all.  True proof that I was willing to invest in function over form!

Then I found out that they existed in pink but weren't available in Canada.  I searched high and low and scored myself a pair in the US on a trip there in early May and was like a kid in a candy store when I actually had them in my hands. 

So yeah, all that to say that I was pink from head to toe for today's run!  And it was fabulous. 

The run itself was pretty good.  I'm finding it fascinating to have this heart rate monitor. I know I've mentioned it in an earlier post but my heart rate is surprisingly high when I run.  Like, hovering between 155-164 when I'm just running at my regular slowish pace.  On my walk breaks I can get down to about 123 or so but then it's right back up.  My maximum heart rate should be 180 so yeah, 164 is way high when I'm not actually pushing myself.  I'm scared to death at the prospect of doing hill training or real speedwork - my heart will explode!

Would be interested to get any thoughts or feedback on people's experience with heart rate monitoring - are they generally accurate?  Is this something I should be concerned about?  The only real solution to get that rate down is to run slower, as far as I can tell, and I just don't think that's possible!  My pace has already slowed a lot instead of getting better over the past few months.   WTF?  Ugh.  I'm at a loss.

Now the whole thing is kind of freaking me out.  Some times too much knowledge is a dangerous thing!

Will be interesting to see how things shake out when I go for my 8k run Saturday morning.  Will report back.