Well, that didn’t feel very good. I’ll go ahead and blame the 85 degree heat, and also that I played softball on Tuesday and did a bit too much sprinting and strained my feet and ankles. The whole run was painful, and on this, my first “long” run (20 minutes), I for the first time in my five weeks of training broke the routine. I stopped at about the 12 minute mark to stand under a tree for a minute and regroup before going on. Now I’m debating whether I should do the run again or just go on to the next week, which includes a 25 minute run.
!=/files/2007/08/5kfailure.gif(4K run graph)!
The red arrow indicates where I paused the iPod to take a break. Bad Danny, bad! Despite that, after the run my right foot was still throbbing…
Buy a Polar heart monitor. Then find a good range and stick to it. I find that without it, I can’t control my exertion very well and end up running too fast, tiring myself out too soon.
I have a Polar F6 and I think it’s amazing. Without monitoring my heart rate, I can run for maybe 10 minutes before I get really tired and have to slow down/stop. With the monitor, I’ve run for 30-45 minutes and don’t feel sick at the end. If you keep your heart rate in the right range for what you are trying to accomplish (strength training, endurance training, etc…) you get a lot more out of the exercise. If your heart rate goes too high you end up getting tired and have to stop. If it’s too low you don’t accomplish anything.