After my weekend jogs, I kept going with jogs on Monday night and Tuesday morning. For Monday night, I decided to make it short (5 km / 3.11 miles) and easy (140 avg heart rate):
It rained on me the last quarter mile or so, but just a light sprinkle. Too little and too late for any cooling effect. If I recall it was 86° when I started. Then, early the next morning, I embarked on my first ever interval workout.
I programmed it on my computer and then exported the workout to my Garmin. Then, it spent the next hour telling me what to do and when to do it. Sadly, I misprogrammed the warm-up and cool-down to say "try to stay in zone 2". So the watch beeped at me for the 1.4 miles to the track and the 1.4 miles back (I can't jog with a zone 2 heart rate!). But, the important stuff went well: jogging six faster quarter-mile intervals separated by 2:15 minute recovery jogs. If you click on the stats picutre, you can read what my pace was for each of the six. It ranged from an 8:45 pace to a 9:15 pace. All of them well below my 5K pace of 10:23.
On the last interval, I was thinking "Make it good, because I may not do anymore workouts like this one." But, five minutes later on the jog home, I was thinking "Hmmm, that wasn't so bad." This is certainly the most distinctive HR chart I've produced to date:
I've got to read a book to figure out what this workout is supposed to do for me. But, in the meantime, I've got to confess a mistake I made on the way back.
After I got off the track, I started to jog across the street. I had my hand up ... I think I was thanking the lady in the truck for slowing down so I could scamper across. Well, then she slams on her brakes and started doing the "I'm not happy with you" thing. Oops, guess I only imagined that she was slowing down for me. So, I pantomimed the "Please forgive this sorry idiot" thing. She readily accepted and I jogged on without a concern in my head. Had I just been walking, I would have been shaking or something. But, after six quarters, it seemed to be inconsequential. Note to self: don't run out in front of vehicles! In all, I did 5.25 miles, and decided to take Wednesday off. Both ankles were a bit sore immediately after the workout, but after a few hours they both felt peachy and my legs are revved and ready for Thursday.
Here is how often I've been jogging lately. The calendar is starting to get a little red!
I absolutely love interval workouts. I seem to get more of a workout out of them because I can go for a lot longer. One of the last ones I did (before injury) was bordering around 2 hours. It was awesome.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the great work!! You are doing awesome!!
I really need to try that whole interval workout thing. Does Garmin tell you when to speed up and slow down? I really need to look into all the things it's capable of doing.
ReplyDeleteHope your summer is going well--I'm so behind on all my blogging, but never fear, I'm still keeping up with this running thing. It's so addictive, isn't it?