Measuring Heart Rate

This post will be a little bit of a modge podge of topics. I'll highlight a few things and then go in to more detail about the beginnings of my heart rate monitoring and training!

Runs
-4 times last week (Sun/Mon/Wed/Fri) and another run today (Sunday)
-(both) Sundays: 2.5 mile runs with Ellie to Harvard Gulch (152 and 151 avg heart rate)
-Monday: 2 mile treadmill run at 10 min pace (HR unknown)
-Wednesday: 3.2 mile outside run at work - 2nd fastest time for 13 times running this course (161 avg heart rate)
-Friday: 4 mile intervals on treadmill, average heart rate 168

Take aways
1- Ellie does NOT like to run. I feel like people are judging me as it appears I am dragging her. She is content trotting along, but has the energy to speed up once she sees squirrels, dogs, etc. I know she is MUCH faster - she sprints up and down in the snow hiking and does crack laps around the yard! She doesn't like running much. She DOES like lounging around and looking cute:

Case in point - Ellie lounging: (AA took this in Beaver Creek this weekend)

2- I am slow. I don't care that I am slow - but when I was training for the Boulder 1/2 I was not concerned as much with my time, as I was building my endurance. The next race I have is the Turkey Trot in Wash Park on Thanksgiving. I wanted to see what I ran last year to see what I had to beat. I was amazed I ran a 9:32 pace last year for the four mile race! Most of my miles have been around 10:30ish recently, so I made my goal over the next 4 weeks to improve my speed. Just for perspective, my first race in Denver was the 2010 Turkey Trot and I had an 11:09 pace! I don't think I'll have as big of an improvement this year, but I am looking get the 9:30ish pace!  

2011 Turkey Trot - Tyler, AA, Panda

3- I want to learn more about my heart rate...my target heart rate, my max rate, my rate for recovery runs, etc. This past week I have started collecting data by wearing the heart rate monitor for my watch. I'll go in to this a little bit more below. I think my goal of increasing my speed goes hand in hand with this idea as I learn to better monitor my heart rate and learn from it!

4- I love Colorado, and I love the outdoors :-) AA and I took a trip up to Beaver Creek for the weekend with the pups since he can get us amazing deals for hotels with his job :-) It was an amazing weekend of adventure, relaxing, and catching up with each other!

compliments of AA

AA at Beaver Creek Lake

Hoping the ice didn't break!

Puppies always close

Beautiful views of Beaver Creek!

5- Halloween is a great holiday. I dressed up in my panda costume to get a $2 boo-ritto. The line was pretty long! After I was a little disheartened when only four trick or treaters showed up at our house :-(
Also - day four with no candy! A blog I follow start a No Candy November Challenge. After having WAY too much candy leading up to Halloween I knew this is exactly what I needed to curb my intake! Especially since candy is a tasty treat while studying....but no unhealthy!

Heart Rate Training
I have only begun to look in to this. I decided to start collecting data would be my first step! Love to analyze data :-)
There are different zones you can target depending on what the aim of your workout is. There is a zone (60-70% of max rate) that is for long, recovery runs. The aerobic (70-80%) is the 'target heart rate zone' which is most effective to improve cardiovascular fitness. The anaerobic zone (80-90%) is used to increase your bodies lactate threshold and then the VO2 max which is only used for very fit people, and for a very little amount of time.

My first step is that I need to figure out my resting heart rate and my max heart rate so I can determine what these zones are. There is the basic calculation of 220-age = max heart rate. I also read something about doing a treadmill test where you run your hardest for 3 minutes (two times) with a small break and the max of your heart rate during the 2nd interval should be the max. I will try this.

So for now, I am doing research and trying to see what different types of training there are, and how to best improve my fitness. My interval training on Friday felt great. I monitored my heart rate and tried to let it drop a little bit before I would start the next fast interval. If anyone tracks their HR and has any advice please pass it on!!

Heart rate from intervals on Friday

 Have a great week! GO BRONCOS....great win today :-)

Pic from last week's game! Broncos beat the Saints week 8

Dovergeddon

I can’t believe I haven’t updated in a week! It has flown by! Last week we were getting ready for Aa’s parents, they came Thursday and left yesterday!

Overall it was a great week for workouts as you can see below. The third row in each box is my actual activity – the top two are what I planned a few weeks ago.

Running – 11 miles
Biking – 26 miles
Swimming – 2700 meters


Thursday (6/14)
AM: 800m swim, 3 mile run
It was going to be a busy evening, so I got up early to go do an open water swim at Grant Ranch! I was about 2 minutes away when I realized OWS were only M/W/F. I decided to head to Wash Park and still get in my first brick workout! I did 800 meter swim in the pool, threw on my sneakers, put stuff in car and then did a 3 mile run around the outer loop! I even had negative splits for my run – I was very pleased!

Friday (6/15)
Horseback Riding ☺
AA, his parents, and I headed up to Beaver Creek for a horseback ride! It was such a fun time! We did a 2 hour tour and my horse, King Kong, was awesome! I’ve never had an easier time gaining 1600 ft in elevation ☺ We went to Beaver Creek Stables – great experience!

Riding along ridge

Happy Fam!

Sweet Bandanas

Gorgeous Aspen Forests

Hello Beaver Creek!

Group Shot!

Saturday (6/16)
AM1: 5 mile run at Wash Park
AM2: 9 mile bike up Lookout Mountain

Early to bed meant early to rise! I think we were all up by 6:30 and headed to Wash Park for a run! AA’s dad (Kit) and I decided to try and do 2 outside loops (5 miles) and Aaron walked with his mom since his foot was still hurting from the Tough Mudder! It was an awesome run. Kit was aiming to do 10 minute miles – which is slower for him but since he just came from sea level it seemed reasonable! At one mile I updated him it had been 10:06, and I shortly noticed him one by one passing people. After a few tenths I looked down and our pace was in the 9:40s! The run felt good and I was definitely trying to keep up with him! After the first mile of 10:06 our times were 9:44, 9:48, 9:33, 9:27 for a pace of 9:44! (For comparison, my run last Sunday, by myself…right after my OWS was paced at 10:46 for the same route). Even though I felt I was trying to match his pace, he was also trying to keep up with me so it was great motivation!

Kit and Me!

After, I wanted to get in another practice bike ride at Evergreen. Aaron was excited to try it with me so we pumped up the tires and headed out while his parents relaxed a bit! On the way there was a sign on I-70 that route 74 (which we needed to take and bike on) was closed from 10-1. I quickly started looking for alternate routes and Aaron suggested we try Lookout Mountain – which we were quickly approaching but was on the way. I had never done Lookout Mountain, only driven up it a bunch! It is all uphill, around windy roads to the top of the mountain where Buffalo Bill’s grave is and some amazing views in to Golden, the foothills and even Denver. The people climbing up this always seemed crazy good bikers and when I first moved here I never imagined I could ever do it. Luckily I did not have time to think about it so I said that sounded great! We came from the backside so actually drove down the part we were going to be biking up and as always, it looked crazy. I should also note Aaron also only has a single speed bike – so that was going to be challenging ☺

Top of Lookout!

Way down

Anyways, we started out and my goal was to just take it slow and steady! Aaron thought it was around 5 miles and I had my watch! I quickly was short of breath but my legs were feeling pretty strong and I was pretty excited to just be trying it! Aaron went ahead but waited for me after about a mile and then just followed me up the rest of the way. Around mile 2 he told me to look left and I saw that we had just passed a deer on the other side of the road! It is super narrow road with no shoulders – but obviously I was so focused I missed the deer 10 feet from me! Even though we got passed by other bikers along the way, I was happy I didn’t need to stop at all and kept going. The first miles had gain of 280 and 293 and a break in the third at 249. I could definitely tell the fourth was the hardest at 342. This is great practice for Evergreen and a little bit steeper! The biggest miles for Evergreen were 305, 210 and 194! All in all it was about 41 minutes up and 12 minutes down ☺ GREAT time!



 
Sunday (6/17)
750m open water swim
It was another early morning and I headed off to Grant Ranch for a swim in the lake and I double checked that I could go ☺ I ended up doing the triangle that is about ½ a mile. I started with the bobbing and got used to breathing in a lake again. I was still a bit nervous. I started out and switched to breast stroke for sighting every once and a while. I got short of breath for a little bit and really tried to get those scary thoughts out of my head. All in all a decent swim, still work to do! I flipped over on my back once on each of the 3 legs so sort of take a moment and regroup – which I didn’t have to do during the clinic last week. I am planning on trying the Boulder Stroke and Stride again on Thursday so I am hoping my two OWS will help out this time around! Slow and steady! And don’t freak out!

Cutest baby award from BBQ on Sunday

Monday (6/18)
3 mile treadmill run
Weights (arms/abs/push-ups/planks)

Slow and steady run – not very exciting.
AA also took me to a park nearby for the sunset and took some cool pics!

Tuesday (6/19)
1250 meter swim
11 mile bike ride (Kickball RT)

AA and I headed to Wash Park in the AM – I swam laps and he did a gentle run to test out his foot. Kickball tonight so that will be an 11 mile bike ride! Theme: cartoon character! We’ll try to stay cool in this 90+ degree weather!

Superman and Alvin!

Plan
As I mentioned I am hoping to do the stroke and stride (750m swim + 3 mile run) on Thursday if I can leave work on time. I might bike to work tomorrow, or atleast a bike ride at work tomorrow. I am taking Friday off because a college roommate is coming to visit for the weekend! We are going to head to the mountains for a scenic bike ride, so I’ll get in a little exercise, but not sure how long it’ll be! I am hoping to do a run at Wash Park Sunday – but other than that I’ll be focusing on hanging out with Tink!