It Feels Good!

FINALLY!  I am back to running and yoga.  That was a tough three weeks but my first two runs out of my injury were surprisingly strong and pain free.

This week Sage has off from school and Rich took off from work.  It has been a great week so far!  We  celebrated my sister's babies on Saturday (they are due in early May), celebrated Easter and my birthday on Sunday, spent a few nights at Rich's mom's house and a night at my folk's.  Rich and I went for a beautiful 4-mile run near his mother's house on Tuesday.  We took it nice and easy because it was my first run after a few weeks off.  His mother lives out on a beautiful country road where everyone we passed waved, sometimes twice (on the way out and on the way back), and the cars gave us enough room where we did not think we needed to bail in the ditch.  Rich and I got to spend some nice quiet time together and we were able to talk freely, which does not happen that often.  Then on Thursday we took a very scenic 10k run alongside The Sacandaga with my dad.  Great run and great conversation.  Both runs are leaving me feeling optimistic about our races this season, which starts with a 5k tomorrow in Broadalbin, NY.

I would like to mention one run here in Saratoga Springs, NY that I think is going to be very nice.  This run is to benefit the Emma Foundation.  The race is on Saturday, May 12th at 9am and there will be a free kids 1/2 mile race just before at 8:30am in front of the Waldorf School on York Avenue in Saratoga.  If you are around this area and would like to support a wonderful school while meeting some fantastic people and seeing a beautiful town, please run on over and show your support.

Sunday in the Sun

Sage, waiting on Daddy and Mommy

Today has been an active one.  With a forecast of over 70 degrees, there was no way we weren't going to spend a lot of it outdoors.  So, we began with a walk down to One Yoga Saratoga where I went for the 1 hour of Hot Inversion Yoga.  Sage led the way on his balance bike and while I did yoga, he and Becca went down to Congress Park.

Yoga was challenging, but it was different than expected.  For one, I didn't think it would be on the hot side, so class started at a nice and balmy 104 degrees!  If you think doing handstands and headstands is tough, you should give them a try when it's so hot that it's challenging to breathe and you're covered head to toe in buckets of sweat.  Still, I felt like the class was well worth my while.

Foreman Elliot, would you take orders from this guy?!?

Once Sage went down for his nap, Becca suggested I for a bike ride, so I grudgingly went while Becca got do yard work with Elliot acting as foreman.  It was a short 30 minutes out, but it was really my first time riding my bike since getting it from Pat.  It needs to be more properly fitted to me, but it rides great and feels fast.  On this ride I tried to keep my heart rate in check and found that it was a little more challenging to keep a steady heart rate than with running.  If I was on a trainer I'm sure it'd be more consistent, but on the open road with all the hills it definitely was up and down.

Finally, we took a family run down to Saratoga State Park just before dinner so the boys could enjoy the weather and a nice ride in the Bob.  We took it easy, but it was a great run.  We even experimented with taking pictures while running!  What do you think?  ===============>>

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Mid-St. Patty's Day Run

Today, was a short, but really enjoyable 4 miler with the fam. We started at the post office where Sage was finding his echo and entertaining the postal worker.  We then looped around town and finished up at the Farmers' Market.

I don't know if it was because it's Saint Patrick's Day, but everyone we encountered was in a really great mood.

Yay Spring!

I'm So Happy!  

   

It's My First St. Patty's Day!!! 

Slowing Down to Go Faster

As mentioned in an earlier post, a friend of mine and I are competing in the Timberman Half-Ironman.  We're getting our training schedule from Mark Allen Online and Mark is a big proponent of training with your heart rate no higher than your maximum aerobic heart rate, which for me is 149 beats per minute (if you want to calculate your maximum aerobic heart rate, go the bottom of this post).  Allen still says to do 15-20 minutes per week of speed and interval work in each activity, but that we really need to build a good base to carry us the 70.3 miles.  He also claims I will experience an increase in my pace and after just a few weeks should see a dramatic improvement in the speed I can go at a lower heart rate.

I strongly believe in the benefits and effects interval training can have on a person, but I also buy into this low HR approach.  In 2009 when I started back running, I took my time.  I just cared about getting out and going for long easy runs.  After about 5 weeks of this, I tested out my speed and found that I had improved my mile time by 2 minutes!  For some reason I didn't keep doing what I was doing and decided to train at a faster pace.  You might be able to figure out what happened, but the long and short of it is that I didn't get any faster and started experiencing a lot more aches and pains. This has occurred in another area of my life too.  I once followed a workout routine for 3 months where I went for high reps with low weights.  In that time, my bench max went from 195 to 285.   I was so psyched about how much I could lift that I switched to heavier workouts and guess what...the gains stopped.  

It seems to me, the only thing standing in my way is me and my ability to set my ego aside and take things slow for a little while.  Mark Allen talks about how hard this is on our egos and that's why many will never train this way.  To keep our heart rate low usually means we have to slow way down.  For me it means I have to keep my pace at 9:30 - 9:40 per mile for now.  That's dreadfully slow, but I think I'll be okay with it just as long as it's still not that slow a month from now.  

Training slower also means that I have to either slow down my running partners or trail behind.  Last night in our family run, Becca ended up having to leave me in the dust a couple of times because I had to keep my pace down while pushing the boys...thanks for your patience, honey :-)  

I'm excited though at the prospects here.  Along with the Vegan Challenge, I have high hopes for where I'll be a month from now in my abilities.  

Does anyone have some success to report with this training style?  Anyone think it's bunk and can back up their claim?

~The Mr.

---

So if you want to calculate your maximum aerobic heart rate, there are several methods out there, but here's how Mark Allen's does it: 

1. Take 180 
2. Subtract your age
3. Take this number and correct it by the following: 
    -If you do not workout, subtract another 5 beats. 
    -If you workout only 1-2 days a week, only subtract 2 or 3 beats.     -If you workout 3-4 times a week keep the number where it is. 
    -If you workout 5-6 times a week keep the number where it is.

    -If you workout 7 or more times a week and have done so for over a year, add 5 beats to the number. 
    -If you are over about 55 years old or younger than about 25 years old, add another 5 beats to  whatever 

      number you now have.

    -If you are about 20 years old or younger, add an additional 5 beats to the corrected number you now have. 

Running With My Dad

Thursday mornings are busy around our house.  Get dressed, brush teeth, make breakfast, clean up breakfast, wait for our veggie/fruit wholesaler to deliver our weekly groceries, and then we're off to gramma and papa's house.  The boy's get to hang out with gramma while I get to go for a run with my dad.  My dad and I started running together in 2008 after I moved back home from living in Washington.  He is over six feet tall and I stand at 5 feet, 5 inches tall.  Surprisingly, we make great running partners.  This Thursday was no different, except that our fruit vendor was very late with his delivery so I thought my dad might hit the pavement without me.  Luckily, I have the best dad in the world and he waited.  We ended up not hitting the road until around 11:30.  We have a great out and back route that goes towards the Batchellerville Bridge on the Great Sacandaga Reservoir.  It is a beautiful and hilly 6-mile run.  My folks are so lucky to live in such a picturesque area.  Thursday's run was not the strongest showing by me, but my dad slowed his pace so that we could continue to chat about life.  My dad has a lot of great advice to give.  He is very knowledgeable and he is a great listener.  He has always taken the time to explain something to me if I'm having a hard time understanding.  I love my dad and I couldn't ask for a better running partner when Rich isn't available.

We chatted a lot about the races that we are going to run this year and we are excited for this year's roster.  This year we have decided to run the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon on October 7th, which starts in Schenectady, NY and finishes in Albany, NY.    We have the Utica half marathon on May 20th (hopefully, still waiting for confirmation on this one), the father's day mule haul, 5 miles, on June 17th,  the Charlton Heritage 5k on June 2nd, a 10k up in Speculator sometime in August (unless if that falls on the same weekend as Rich's Timberman), and the Stockade-athon 15k on November 11th.  I am sure that I will find some other races to run and I will be sure to keep you all updated on how we do.

Do you have any running partners?  What races do you have lined up for 2012?

First Run as a Married Couple

Well, today we ran together for the first time as a married couple.  It was a great run.  A little overcast and windy, but fun.  The boys were snug in the stroller, though halfway into the run, Sage asked that we put the windshield up for him.  Poor fella was a little chilly.  


Rich and I figured out that if we push the boys for 10 minutes and then swap, we do not get overly tired.  I know we all like to believe that we can do everything for ourselves, but having someone to help push on longer runs is almost necessary if you want to get out there, that is, unless if you are superman or wonder woman (we all like to think we are, I know).


This is a great time for Rich and I because for most of the run we get to chat about our ideas and dreams.  We have come up with some really wonderful ideas on runs.  We get to talk about Rich's work and work that we would like to do together eventually.  One of our discussions today was about the Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon and when we got  home we jumped on the computer and signed up.  My dad is going to run it with us, I am so excited about this.  Both my father and Rich have run this marathon and I was going to attempt it last year, but I ended up being pregnant during the time when I would have been training.  This is the year!  No new babies and hopefully no injuries.  We do not think that they allow strollers in this race, so I think that they will sit this family run out and play with their grandma's. 


We also get to do a lot of observing on our runs.  We observe how our body's are feeling, how our breath is flowing through our body.  We get to greet many people and show the boys that it is polite to say "good morning" or "hello!"  On today's run, the local high school cross country team was having a practice run around the park.  They are all very young, kind of made us feel old, and they are all extremely heavy-footed.  We could hear them pounding up behind us.  Maybe they did that so that we knew they were coming, I do not know, but I feel terrible for their knees.  Heavy-footedness aside, they were still much faster than us.