Pre-/Base Training Continues...

To help me out a little with my training, I bought a Polar Heart Rate Monitor/watch. I've been running with this nifty gadget for about one-and-a-half weeks now. Although it automatically sets my "zones" (light, moderate, and hard) based on my sex, age, height, weight, etc., I think they may be a little "off" for me, so one of these days I am going to have to check out what my actual 'resting' heart rate is before I even get up out of bed. The reason I am thinking they may be a little "off" is when I run, oftentimes my watch "yells" at me to back it down a little because I am exceeding my "hard zone" of 155-173 HR, yet I still feel like I am not running to my maximum potential. So, if I figure out my true resting heart rate, then I will be able to better-program my monitor to my actual HR stats and zones. I have fun coming back after a run and recording the results of my run - time, Max and Avg HR, calories burned (and the percentage of those being fat calories), etc. Now I just have to figure out how to use all this information to my advantage!

The last two weeks, and the last week in particular haven't been my best. I know I haven't been eating like I should, which may be when I run I don't feel very well and my time really suffers. One thing I am going to try to improve on is eating better, and the first step was buying some whole wheat bagels I keep in my office for breakfast; I work with a guy who is pretty big in to biking and nutrition, so he has given me lots of good tips not just on biking, but also nutrition and how to use my heart rate monitor - the whole wheat bagels were one of his tips. Additionally, I missed two runs this week - Thursday I was to do 3 miles, but instead I went to the Perry County Fair. Then yesterday I was supposed to do 4 miles, and I planned on doing so when I got home from my cousin's Housewarming Party, but I found myself getting caught up in a game of trivia and didn't get home until it was too close to dark to start a 4 mile run. To try to make up a bit for these missed runs, I will do 4 miles later on this evening.

On Saturday the 14th, I attemped 4 miles for the first time. Since I was upping my mileage (even though it was just a little), I decided to walk 2 minutes every 10 minutes, and then run pretty hard during my 10 minute runs. It worked pretty well, I think, and I finished the 4 miles in 45 minutes and 45 seconds, which equals a 11.44 min/mi. If I can keep exacty that pace for the actual marathon, I should be able to finish in my goal of 5 hours, although hopefully I won't be walking every ten minutes :-).

This past Wednesday (a cross-training day), I had a nice 15 mile bike ride, as I rode to Little Buffalo State Park, then along the lake there, and back home. I wasn't completely sure of the miles, but I knew it was somewhere around 14. Rather than go back and drive it, I took the advice of my not-so-little brother, Eric (who has a marathon and a half-marathon to his credit - the picture below is after he completed the Philadelphia half-marathon in November 2009 (my mom also completed it)....you can see why I call him my "not-so-little" brother!), who maps his routes and measures them on Google Earth. The measuring tool worked pretty well, and when I used it on my standard routes I run up and down Erly Road, I found that I may actually be running a little bit more than 3 miles when I run up to my 1.5 mile point and back (which might have something to do with my horrible times when I compare them to what I ran my two 5K's in this past spring). While at Little Buffalo for a picnic last Sunday, I grabbed a trail map - I have lived so close to this state park almost my entire life and have spent a lot of time there, but had no idea of all the hiking trails that are there! Since it was to be a day to cross-train, I took a little hike on one of the trails. I think I will be taking advantage of the Little Buffalo trails a lot on cross-training days now! I would also like to check out the Cumberland Valley Rails to Trails, which I also just found out about this week thanks to another co-worker - this rail trail goes from Newville to Shippensburg and is 11.1 miles one way. Considering going from Blackwell to the Turkey Path and back is slightly longer than 22.2 miles and I've already done that, I figure biking the CVRT will be no problem (not to mention there won't be a 2 mile hike in the middle of it, either). I'm sure I'll hit up the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail with my bike some Sunday afternoons this fall.

This Tuesday is the Winter Season Team in Training Kickoff. Although I've already met both my mentor and coach at the informational meeting I attended, and some Central PA LLS staff, I will also get to meet my fellow team members and hopefully my Honored Teammate, Jeff Allen. Additionally, if I bring 150 fundraising letters to the kickoff, LLS TNT will mail them for me, saving me $66! So, this afternoon I am working on getting my letters and sponsor forms personalized and addressed; I had started them a little over a week ago, but I still have more than half to do today. Hopefully after they get mailed out Wednesday I will soon start to receive some donations back in the mail and via my web-site, so that will be exciting to track. Since I took a break from them to write this blog update, I'd better get back to them!