Good news and bad news

Some good news...

I had a great Christmas. Lots of fun, the kids had a great time and got lots of fun new things that are eventually making their way to their bedrooms, and I got some new toys... mostly bike related (headlight/taillight set for the bike, bike computer [with cadence!]), but I also got a new heart rate monitor. I got to take it out for the first time today, as the weather over the Christmas break was not conducive to running, or even to walking the 1/2 a block to the clubhouse with the treadmill. I ran my standard 4 mile City Creek loop, and my heart rate seemed to average in the high 160's going up, and the low 150's on the way down. The not-so-good news is I didn't get one that stores the data -- it's a very basic model. That's cool though, it's a step up from what I've had in the past (nada). The treadmills and indoor cycle here in the gym will have their computers that will keep track of average/maximum rates, etc., so it's all good.

The bad news?

Gained a pound over the 5 day layoff. Considering what I ate and how much I exercised (not), I think that may actually be a positive thing.

Tweet tweet

Still running. I had a great run Friday night. I left home about 5:30 and ran for 44 minutes and change, for 4.55 miles. That's a sub-10 pace on average, and every split was sub-10 also. Usually I'll have a sub-10 run where one mile was just over 10 minutes, like 10:04, but the sum of the other miles made up for that :04 and brought the average down. I was quite pleased with this run.

Also, on Monday I tried going out way too hard... on a treadmill. I got on the treadmill at lunch, and noticed that the guy next to me, who happens to be a VP in our company and one of my former professors in college, had been on the treadmill for about 2 minutes and change already when I started. I also noticed that he was running at a 6.0 mph rate, or a 10-minute mile. I set the TM to 6.2, with the goal to catch him within 3 miles. It didn't quite happen. I noticed that he sped up at one point to 6.1... so I went to 6.4, then 6.7.... then 7. When I had .25 miles to go, I knew he was out of reach, as he was still about .13 ahead of me. But I got a nice tempo/interval/speed work session done. Then I went and did a circuit on the weight machines which made me just about pass out. I haven't been that light-headed in a long time. But alas, no passing out (although I came close). I think I just was under-hydrated and under-fueled.

Today I settled in for a quick 4 mile "easy" run at 6.0 on the treadmill, with Champions League soccer on the telly. Chelsea won, 2-1 (yay!). And the 4 miles were over in 39:46.

Oh, and I'm on twitter. Follow me at twitter.com/baldzach

December?

Today I ran outside in 55 degree temperatures. In Utah. In December. 4 miles in 40 minutes.

I'm going to have to ditch the podcasts in favor of Christmas music on these runs if I'm going to believe it's December at all. As near as I can tell, it's 'beginning to look a lot like Halloween.'

... minus all the scary stuff. Which is good, I don't like that crap anyway.