Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Dopamine

Last week we were experiencing record low temps in the area, some days the high temp didn't break 32F. I'm from Southern California and not fully accustomed to this kind of weather yet so I took my training inside last week. I managed 3 runs on the treadmill at the gym. It's nice to be able to control your pace and stay warm but that's about all I can say for treadmills. Maybe if there were fans to cool you down and the belt didn't feel so flat and loose under your feet. In any case I mostly did shorter runs (4-6mi.) at a 7:05 - 7:45 pace.

On Sunday I found 2 hours to get outside and run. It was around 36F out so I bundled up a bit and grabbed my gloves. I ran an out and back route toward Rosedale and beyond. I put the Quadrathon podcast onthe iPod and set off. I'm not sure why but I can totally zone out listening to his podcast which he typically records while he is running. He talks about his training/gear/races while you hear his foot steps in the background. It's strangely comforting.

In any case I've been playing around with my Garmin Forerunner lately and figured out how to set it up with a pre-programmed run. I set it for 10 min. of warmup (below 135 HR), then 1:40 @ 7:15 pace or better, then 10 min. of cooldown. It was a decent way to go except you only get to see your program info and not your mileage, speed or HR. I need to figure that out for next time. The program worked except the part where I kept an 8:00 pace instead of 7:15. I blame the hills for that.

I would blame the light snow that fell for most of the run but it wasn't enough to stick to the ground and mostly just made me happy to be out running. Three cheers for Dopamine! With the warmup and cooldown at a slower pace I didn't get as many miles in as I would have liked.

Time: 2:00:00
Dist: 14.6
Pace: 8:16/mi. ?

Good to get out after missing last weekend's long run.

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