Hydration, or lack of.

Excited again by the warmer weather, I couldn't wait to get out. The honey oat bread and peanut butter worked well for me on Tuesday, so I slammed another serving down and bolted out the door. Uncharacteristically, my Magellan watch took a long time to find a signal. Since it was 41 degrees, I dressed as if it were 60, so I was cooling off rather quickly waiting for the gps to start. Runmeter was like a horse at the gate, ready and willing - when I felt the familiar vibration on my left wrist, I knew I was all set with both devices. About 40 yards in, though, I glanced at the watch and noticed it was still in 'lift' mode, and it would not be recording splits. I just stopped for about 50 seconds to reset the watch, and started off again.
I had no particular plan in mind when I started out. I knew that I wanted to work on my form again, especially my posture. I needed to lift my rib cage to facilitate increased lung capacity. I also forgot to put on a breathe-rite strip.

 Note to self: I've got to bring them downstairs and leave them with the other running stuff.

Even before 2 miles were run, I had the feeling that my heart was throwing irregular beats. At around the same time, I was coming up to the part of my route that was fast - level with a brand new road surface, and limited debris, especially after the previous rain and wind storm from yesterday. I decided to slowly speed up my pace, run just under max effort, and slow down again. I did that 3 times, I think. By the last time I was wiped, only really running about 20 seconds each time. It was taking me way too long to recover from each sprint. My mouth and the back of my throat was really dry. My heart kept skipping beats. Then, it dawned on me, that I must be dehydrated. I don't remember drinking that much water yesterday, or even taking a glass of water with me to bed last night. With only a cup of coffee as liquid this morning, it pretty much explains what the problem could have been.

I felt immediately better after my recovery drink, and I plan on taking a bottle or two of water with me during my home care outings today.

Looking at the data, Runmeter does a great job graph-wise showing when I picked up the pace and slowed down.

I'm hoping for good weather for the weekend, as I'd like to get at least a easy 10 miler in before the week is through.

Magellan Data

Runmeter Data

..On the road again..

For some reason, I woke up this morning thinking it was warmer outside than it actually was. I did not think of looking at the thermometer (is a digital readout still called a thermometer?) while I was drinking my coffee. I decided to try something different for my pre-run snack;  a slice of oat bread with a tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter. It's sure less expensive the P90X bars I've been eating. As I was feeding my maw, pulling out my gear and gadgets and lining them up on the counter, I glanced at the temperature. 30 degrees? Crap. But it looks so WARM outside! Arg. No chimes ringing? Good. I just about bounded upstairs to get dressed, because for a fleeting second I thought I should jump on the treadmill instead. Nope. I knew as soon as I got dressed, I was committed. (I LOVE that!) 
I dressed as if it were 50 degrees, and headed out. I turned on my watch first - battery low. WHAT? That's never happened before.  We'll see how far it gets me on 17%. (Turns out, 1.25 miles) Soo.. Runmeter became my primary data collector.

Well, it felt SO good to be out on the road again. How freeing. And the more I ran, the more I felt in tune with what my body was communicating to me. I found myself really paying attention this morning. I decided to slow down on the inclines to conserve energy instead of pushing through. I took advantage of the declines and sped up instead of letting gravity do the work. This all resulted in a pace faster than a regular run, but slower than my 5k race pace. 
I'm a happy runner this morning.

Runmeter Data

Last minute race..

..on the south shore of Long Island, literally. Less than a half a mile from the ocean, but buffered by dune and buildings. I was glad to be there, especially to hear the announcer say "Long Beach is back!" - after hurricane Sandy's assault.  It was misty and windy, but around 40 degrees. I would say we had 10 mph gusts at times. We ran into the wind the first 2 miles, and I was delighted to get helped along a few times by gusts on the way back. I did walk for 30 seconds around mile 2.6 - but that gave me the rest I needed to keep my pace under 9:00 for the rest of the way.  I remained slightly uncomfortable after that, my heart rate really higher than it should have been, but it was the first time I was out on the road in 3+ weeks, and then racing, no less.

I finished under 40 minutes for my first 4 miler. I'm pretty happy. The crowd was great - it was interesting watching the 5-6 minute pacers pass us on the opposite side of the road at about 1.5 to 1.75 miles in. Boy. They were fast. And I smiled when I saw a woman in the mix. Awesome.

I came in 5th in my age group. It would have been nice to have placed, but I'm just glad I decided not to wimp out because of the weather. It really wasn't too bad.

My Magellan shut off during the start of the race, I guess I had it on too long before I hit the start button. Also, it defaulted back to the setting I had it on for just lifting weights, so it did not record my splits. At least the date and time is now correct. Runmeter seems like it did it's job well, but I was concerned during the run that the tall buildings would screw with the gps signal. And it looks like it paced me faster than the actual chip timing. That could have been the result of the signal, I suppose.

Another thing that made me happy was how fast I recovered from the run. It might have taken me a minute or two to feel completely comfortable with my heart rate after crossing the finish line - and getting out of the car after a 40 minute ride home was unremarkable. Granted, it wasn't a 13 mile run, but I felt energized and not stiff at all. As I sit here typing, I'm feeling almost a second wind.. serene and relaxed, my breathing feels deeper and effortless. Could this be a runners high after the race? I think this has happened to me before. I love the feeling. It only means I should perhaps push myself harder when I train, if I want to feel it more often.

Ok. I think it's a Chipotle and Target afternoon. In the rain.

Official:
143th/400 
49th/209 women
5th/18 age group
34:52
8:46 pace


Runmeter Data
Magellan Data

My running skill on the 'mill..

Behold.