Friday, December 11, 2015

Running Streak - Day 40

Round numbers have a such a nice ring to them, and 40 sounds like a bona fide milestone.  To me, my biggest milestone so far was 4.  Once I strung 4 consecutive days of running together, I felt like I was actually going somewhere, especially having been on the couch of doom for so long.  Two weeks (14 days) really surprised me, too.  Now that I'm at 40 days, I'm looking ahead more than behind.  After tomorrow I will be 2/3 complete.

Today was the best day weather-wise of the whole week.  It was sunny, 14C and absolutely un-December-like.  Every runner I saw on the Ottawa River pathway was grinning from ear-to-ear.  We are all out there running looking like cats who swallowed the canary.  I know that anyone reading this blog is wondering why I am going on so much about the weather.  To give you an idea, it was a balmy -3C with a bit of snow on this date last year, and in 2013 it was a frigid -22C.   A "normal" temperature for mid-December in Ottawa is -10C and today I was out in a short sleeve tech shirt and shorts.  This is an absolute blessing, and I am so grateful to be able to take full advantage of it.

I started out a little hard today, perhaps frolicking in the warm temperature.  I got to the 1km point and said to myself, "What are you doing?"  I should cut the pace and enjoy my time in the sun a little more, rather than blast through the run to get it done.  I also was feeling the effects of the intervals on Wednesday and the up-tempo run yesterday.  I slowed down noticeably and as it turns out, I had the opposite experience of Tuesday evening.  I thought I had slowed my pace quite a bit, but it was faster than planned.  I can't explain it. 

The Tomtom produced spikes in the HR readings at the beginning of the run again.  I was thinking about it and am starting to wonder if it is "premium" chest straps that don't get along with me.  My rigid Garmin strap does not do that, but I have had the same thing with all three (Polar, Tomtom and Garmin) straps.  I'm going to explore this a little more.  It's too bad that I can't wear two straps at one to compare the readings.

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