Sometimes I forget I am not in my 20s anymore

Considering I have not managed a single run in the Burgh since May, my blog title clearly is not applicable this summer. But the good news is I did run this morning, once again in Indiana County.

Because it is hot and humid, I decided before even I began my run that I was going to keep my run at 20 minutes. When I first started out, it was a little over 70 degrees, but I could feel the humidity, not to mention there was a lot of haze in the sky. I kept a reasonable pace for most of the run, and it went okay. Very little pain, which was surprising considering my right calf has been hurting since yesterday morning (and still hurts now, hours later). Of course, the hills were not easy, but when are they ever. Near the end, when I had been running about 25 minutes, I checked my heart rate.

I have not thought about what my heart rate should be for years, although I do try to check it after most runs. For some reason, I thought that if it was around 180 bpm when I was finishing the strongest/fastest part of my run, then I was doing something right.

Recently, however, I came across an article that talked about heart rate. According to this source, you should ideally work at no more than 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. To determine this:

220 - Age (39) = 181 (maximum heart rate)

85 percent of 181 = 153.85 bpm

I did a quick search on the internet and found a handful of articles with heart rate calculation tools. According to those tools, when working out, my heart rate should be anywhere from 91 to 163 bpm, which is quite the range (the higher your fitness level, the higher your heart rate can go). Unfortunately, nowhere did I read that I should be working out at my maximum heart rate, which I come close to sometimes. In fact, today, when I had just finished the end of my run, my heart rate was around 175. Oops.

I need to do some more research to figure out if I am putting myself at risk for a heart attack or something. When I run slowly, I feel pretty good and have the energy to keep going, so it makes me think that I should run harder and faster, to tax myself. The same is true when I swim. And, as I have stated here many times, I have been swimming on average three days per week for the past few months. This past week, I managed four days of swimming, and one of those days I swam 30 laps. I feel good when I exercise and I think I am in pretty good shape. Let's hope that is true.

C'mon heart!

Endurance

Well, I have not gone running since just over a week ago, in Indiana County. But I am sticking with my thrice weekly swimming. I have been pretty good about completing 20 laps each time; more often than not, I manage 25 or more.

I have found that for the most part when I swim at a reasonable, almost slow, pace, I hardly tire; I am pretty sure I could swim 40 or 50 laps. Not at once, mind you, but over the 1.5 to 2 hours that I am at the pool. Typically, I swim about 10 laps. Then I play with my kid. Then I swim another 10 laps. Then back to kid time. My fitting in any more laps depends on how long we stay at the pool and if my kid has found someone else to play with. (During the rare times when my kid is not at the pool with me, I usually swim 15 laps at a time.)

Today after I did my first 20 laps, when I was not dodging a group of kids or playing a couple rounds of tag with a few of those same kids, I swam probably another 10 laps over a 45-minute period. I also fit in some treading water and jogging. If the chlorine was not burning my eyes and skin so much and I was not hungry (the downside of swimming), I am pretty sure I could have swum another 10 or so.

I may not be the fastest swimmer. And I am certainly not the most graceful swimmer. (In fact, the wake I leave behind [or ahead, really] when I swim the butterfly is something.) But there is something to be said of endurance.

Which I just did. :-)

I had to run two counties over, but I finally did run!

Unless you count jogging in place in the pool for five or six minutes at a time or running up and down the steps about a month ago, up until this morning, I had not gone running in seven weeks. Wow.

I have thought about running a few times here and there the past few weeks, but as we all know, the road to hell (or in this case, the road to being out of shape) is paved with good intentions but not much else. And although I have been keeping up with swimming a few times a week, it just isn't the same; I really missed running. So finally this morning, when I thought the temps were in the lower 60s, I figured now was as good of a time as any to get out there (there being Indiana County, where my running shoes most recently hit the road last summer, I do believe).

I ended up running about 3.1 miles in just over 30 minutes. Although a 10-minute mile is nothing to brag about it, I can take some comfort in that it has been almost two months since I last ran. Plus there were quite a few hills and curves along with the blazing sun. One road worker along the way told me it was too hot to run (my guess is the temps were in the 70s). I agreed, but said when you have not done so in over a month, you just have to do it.

My left knee hurt a bit for most of the run, and the hills were not easy. But I made it through the entire run without walking, which I feared I would, considering my few runs during this past spring were all under three miles.

Which reminds me: About a month ago, a few moms talked about running the Great Race in September. I ran the 10k two times at the beginning of the century, and I would probably feel defeated if I could run only the 5k. But at this point, I would be happy if I could manage that. We'll see.

Let's just hope another month does not go by before I have a running report.