Day 39: 1.0 mile

1.0 mile. 10:56. 

I kinda dislike running in shorts. I hate how my arse feels all jiggle jaggley when I run. These lululemon speed shorts are slightly too big so that may have something to do with it.  After about a half mile though it stopped doing the Jello Jiggler dance so that was nice. 

Speaking of lululemon...My pacesetter skirts haven't been fitting me right lately. I think I stretched out the sticky hems in my two fave pairs. The undershorts just will not stay down at all. Sad puppy. My measurements haven't changed so it's not that I lost any weight, but NOTHING is fitting right anymore. Not even my sports bras. It's like little clothing fairies fly into my closet at night and stretch out all of my clothes. Naughty little buggers.

Anyway, back to my run...If it weren't for the fact that I wore my Vibrams I probably would have thrown my plans for an easy 1 miler out the window and kept going. But my feet started to feel tired so I didn't want to overdo it.

So, I've been wearing my heart rate monitor on the last couple of runs. Interestingly... I noticed that my heart rate while running is high. Like... 180+ for 15-20 minutes high. Perceived exertion does NOT match that heart rate. I mean, I know I am running hard, but I always feel like I could just go a little bit faster... For just a little hit longer. I'm never gasping for air or feeling like I'm dying. Are you supposed to be able to run at 185 bpm for 20 minutes? Doesn't sound normal. At. All.  

Today was supposed to be an experiment to see what my heart rate chart looks like at a slower pace. Even at almost 2 minutes per mile slower per mile than I had been running my heart rate still got as high as 174. I think my average was 163. At absolute rest, my heart rate is in the low 50s. 

I left the monitor running for awhile after my run tonight to see what my heart is at during my normal evening activities. A slow walk will put it up to 100 almost instantly. Slowly walking up the stairs and I'm at 120. The monitor is not off, because I also tested it by hand a few times. 

I don't feel like I'm overtraining, so could this be just a warning sign that shortly I will feel that way? Am I consuming too much caffeine during the day (I think I had two cups of coffee)? I'm really interested to experiment and try different things to see how my heart rate is affected. I really want to run a mile or two one morning before coffee to test the caffeine theory. This is probably the only way that I can force myself to slow down on runs... Just to see what the numbers on the heart rate chart will look like. Dork, I am. I know.