There has been a fly dying on the window above my bed for the last hour. It keeps trying to fly away but alas, it is dying and it cannot. I only mention it because the first time it crashed into the window, it woke me. So I spent from six to seven this morning feeling bad for a fly but wishing I was still asleep.
I'm a little stiff in the knee region this morning but it is totally worth it because I had a great run last night. I decided to steal an idea that Jaime was given to help her with her running and training for the NYC Marathon mainly because I wanted to see if it worked for me. You run at the speed that brings your heart rate up to 150bpm and you maintain that heart rate. It was really hard but so worth the extra effort of constantly checking my heart rate.
I literally had to sneak out of work on time to actually have the chance to leave on time. Well, I guess it's not really sneaking when you are running from the production area to your office but... yeah. I changed in the bathroom at work because 1) it's actually really clean and 2) if I'm not in my workout clothes when I drive by the gym, I won't stop. It's one of those silly psychological things and it ALWAYS happens to me. The only thing I hate about changing at work is that then the people at work see me in my workout clothes. I see people from work at the gym and that is awkward enough. I just prefer to keep it private, ya know?
When I got to the gym, there was only one treadmill available and of course it was the one without a working pulse reader. I thought all hope was lost for me until three people left the treadmill area at the same time I pressed "START". So I found a machine that was working properly and I started my experiment. What I've gotten from Jaime's blog is SLOW so that's what I aimed for. At first, I set the speed to 4.0 but after 5 minutes, my heart rate peaked at about 130. I increased the speed to 4.1, then 4.2, then 4.3. 4.3 was my magic number. And it certainly was magic because I went at that speed for an hour which is amazing because I've never run for an hour straight before. It felt pretty great and I didn't get my normal GI upset or my shoulder strain. Now, I have to figure out how to replicate this out in the open which I think will require a heart rate monitor. The only bad thing about the treadmills at the gym is that after a few times of grabbing the pulse reader, the sweat from your hands messes with the readings so I found myself constantly needing to clean off my machine. And since I was on a roll, I recruited people to hand me the spray bottle and towel that was stationed on the ellipticals behind me.
I didn't have my headphones so I was surrounded by the sounds of the gym. I heard LMFAO's Sexy and You Know It about five times and heard all the guys congratulating each other on their obvious awesomeness/sexiness. I cannot verify either because all I could SEE was my reflection in the TV screen (each treadmill has a TV, which is great if you have headphones). I could also hear other runners on their treadmills and it kept messing with my speed and rhythm. The guy next to me was walking for 10 minutes and then doing 2 minute sprints. His feet hit his treadmill so hard that it sounded like the machine was about to fall apart. This prompted an employee of the gym to come up to me and say, "Is that you or him? Because whoever is doing that is going to kill our machine!" After he realized it wasn't me he said, "Of course it isn't you, you are like the quietest treadmill runner ever. Are your feet even touching the belt? You deserve a medal!"
And now to work... one. more. day.
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