Some pool running

I am, once again, coming up on a month since I have last gone running. Real running, that is.

I have been keeping up with swimming (two to three times per week), during which I make it a point to jog around the pool or in place, or just tread water each time. I know it is not the same as regular running, but it is better than not running at all, I suppose.

Yesterday, I had a really good swim, no doubt inspired by the Olympics. I have no idea how many laps I swam; I just kept going for the better part of an hour. I managed to do three fast laps at the end of my laps so I could further convince myself that I could be in the Olympics. On top of that, I managed to tread water for about 10 to 15 minutes and jog for 10 minutes, then for another 5. I also did some arm and leg exercises.

The day before, I had a good Zumba workout, and the day before that, I swam about 15 or 20 laps, with some jogging and water treading thrown in.

Last week, I hit the pool a few times and went to Zumba twice. During one of those pool trips, I was treading water for about 45 minutes, with only a couple of breaks.

I am overall pretty happy with the amount of physical activity I have had as of late. And I feel as if my fitness level is close to where I want it to be (my ab muscles, on the other hand, need some work). But there is always room for improvement.

I just hope, but I won't be the farm on it, that I can get another run in before school starts in 3.5 weeks.

I continue to slack off

Having started a part-time, temp job, I have less time than I used to (duh!). As much as I hate to slack off  exercising, I am afraid I have done just that. The week leading up to Easter I managed to swim in addition to the steps I last blogged about. But I am pretty sure that was it.

This week, which is nearly over, has not been any better. At the park on Monday, I ran around with my kid off and on for about 10 to 15 minutes, but that pretty much left me winded. I have no idea why I can run a few miles (not fast of course, but I manage some speed), but yet when I am trying to tag my kid or run away from her, I am so out of breath that I have to take a break after only a minute or two.

Yesterday, we went swimming, where I managed about 18 laps and some arm exercises. Again, nothing to brag about, but at least I was moving. This afternoon I will be Zumba-ing, after not having class last week. Since I work tomorrow, I guess that will be the end of my exercising. Admittedly, since late winter has returned, I am not that disappointed that I have not gone running this week. Getting some exercise is better than none.

15 >> 45

The Race for Pace is just 11 days away. In the past four months, I have run about six times. In the past 30 days, I have managed about three runs. Sure, I have run up and down the steps a few times. I have also been swimming two or three times a week, but as for running at least two miles, on the road, well, that is just not going well.

As I was swimming today, I decided that if I don't run at least two times between now and next Saturday, I should probably skip the race. If I run three times, then I should be able to make it through, though undoubtedly with a time much higher than last year's (27:01).

On a positive note, today, I spent two hours at the pool. The title above refers to my workout there. I swam 15 laps, then I jogged around the pool for 15 minutes. I did that two more times, for a total of 45 laps and 45 minutes of jogging (it took me about 55 minutes to swim the 45 laps).

When I was barely into my second lap, I felt tired and unconvinced that I would accomplish much today. Not wanting to waste this alone time, I decided to break things up and alternate between swimming and running. Well, when you have the resistance of water fighting your arms especially, it is nothing close to running. But I am hopeful that makes the workout even better.

All in all, it was great exercise. It was probably not my fastest, but that I managed to get in the jogging and swimming along with some water exercises such as walking lunges, squats, and push ups, in a two-hour workout, I say bravo to me! (And let's just pretend that when I came home, I did not eat a brat, some cookies, a banana with PB, some tortilla chips and salsa, and a few gingersnaps.)

Hopefully, I will be able to write a post on Thursday or Friday, saying that I manged to get a run in on Thursday.

Stay tuned.

That was pretty productive.

This morning after I dropped the kid off at school, I decided to go swimming. As I have probably mentioned before, the laps I do at the pool are between time spent playing with the kid at the pool. Typically I swim about 10 laps before taking a break to splash around. Some days, I may only manage six or eight before I am summoned to "play with me."

This morning, I decided I would swim at least 30 laps before calling it a morning. My last two times at the pool, I swam 20 and 25 laps respectively, so I figured I, being alone, should be able to surpass that.

I ended up swimming 45 laps, so yeah me! Most laps were at a medium speed, and some were even slow. I ended up doing only about a half dozen fast laps. As I have stated on this blog before, I could probably swim way more laps than what I normally do, so long as I go slowly; I have a lot of endurance.

When I finished lap #45, in about 55 minutes, I decided to run around the pool for 15 minutes. Before I started my swim, I considered going running this afternoon. But once I hit 40 laps, I figured it might be best to skip the run. Jogging back and forth the length of the pool is so much easier than pounding the pavement, and it still counts!

Since I was feeling pretty good, I spent the last under-10 minutes doing some walking lunges, split squats, regular squats, and push ups. All in all, it was a good workout.

But if I expect to run in the Race for Pace, which is two and a half weeks away, I better get myself motivated to run soon.

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 need to run more!

I managed to run only once again this week, on Wednesday. Because I once again got a late start on my way to pick up my kid, I ran about 1.7 to 1.8 miles. I also tried to run as fast I could up the beginning hill, which was not easy. I am not sure how long it took me since I did not time myself; my guess is about 17, maybe even 18, minutes. But I am still mostly satisfied.

I also swam three times this week. I don't remember how many laps I did on Monday; my guess is around 15. I was super tired after only getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before followed by subbing that day. On Wednesday, after that 1.8 mile run, I ran about 15 or 16 laps as well, completing about 10 at once. Then yesterday I swam over 20 laps, swimming about 9 at once, then swimming over 10 after a five minute break.

I am glad my stamina is increasing and I am able to run that many laps at once. Now if only I could run more or at least get back to two miles.

Sun, come back!

Because I was running late, I ran only about 1.8 miles on a sun-filled, warm (about 66 degrees!), but windy, afternoon this past Friday. I ran pretty quickly up the hill, thinking that I might be able to squeeze in the two miles in the 20 minutes I had. Of course that hill that left me pretty breathless, and it took me a few minutes to recover. Ultimately, I decided to cut it short; I just could not take a chance and risk getting back into the parking lot, neither cooled down nor stretched at the same time my kid was walking to my empty car.

Fortunately, I also swam 15 or so laps an hour later, so I did get a pretty good workout in. The very next day, the kid and I walked about a mile in 30-some degree temps. (C'mon, did we really need to lose over 30 degrees in under 24 hours?!)

And on Sunday, I swam about 25 laps, which I thought was the most ground (well, water) I had covered since I started swimming again. But then I realized I did that last weekend. I am now trying to swim three or four laps at a time instead of two, to try to increase my stamina. Hopefully, I can keep that up.

Unfortunately, I developed a slight cold Friday evening. Again. After only about a month and a half of being healthy. Grr.

I am still trying to exercise. And fortunately, I have felt better after I have done something physical. But I have a feeling I will neither swim nor run today. Just can't motivate myself.

22 laps

First of all, I am pretty sure that post title should have 22 spelled out, but then it loses the impact. Second, I am referring to swimming, not running.

I have not gone running (other than running in the pool) for over a month now, which is my longest layoff since I started running again in September 2009. But I have been swimming three times a week (four during a good week) the entire month of January, so I am hopeful I am keeping in shape.

Knowing that I have not been running, I have really been pushing myself while in the pool. I used to do five laps, six on a good day. Eventually I starting swimming 10 laps, with 12 coming on a good day. Last week, I surpassed that, and today, I swam 22 laps!

The pool I swim in is a junior Olympic-sized pool (so the hotel says), which is 25 meters long (so the internet tells me). Assuming all that to be true, that means today, I swam 1000 meters. In full disclosure, I would swim two laps at a time, stopping anywhere from two to five minutes in between each "set:"; since I come to the pool with my kid, I need to keep an eye on her as well as play with her. But in all honestly, it would be difficult for me to swim more than two laps at a time, unless I am doing the side stroke or "T" back stroke, two easy strokes.

On the one hand, I am super proud of myself. I know that swimming is very challenging, and it uses so many muscles. Plus it is low impact, so it is really good for you. But what bothers me is that even though I can and have been completing a lot of laps in the last few weeks, I feel out of shape because I can't swim for more than a few minutes without needing to take a breather. For someone who does not regularly exercise, that may not seem like that big of a deal. But for someone like me who can run for 45 minutes without stopping (or at least I could before Christmas), it seems odd and makes me wonder if I am not in as good of shape as I think.

Once it stops snowing or sleeting for more than two days at a time, so I can feel reasonably sure I won't slip on ice AND once the temps are above 30, I plan to get back out there and run. I guess that will be the true test.

Until then, I am just going to be proud of my 22 laps!