Day Four-Things I Learned Today

One-When it's raining, wear a visor!It's not actually raining today but it's the kind of mist that makes your windshield wipers make that terrible scraping noise, but not using them is really not an option. I really do not like water in my eyes so I think a visor would provide just enough protection. I can say that I understand now why my husband likes running in the light rain-it was nice.

Two-Charge my HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) every four days. Alternatively, don't use the lap feature when it says "battery low". (See the Technical Gobity-Goop side note below if this doesn't make sense to you and you care to understand what I'm talking about.)
I wondered this morning when I got up if I might need to charge my HRM, but decided that I wasn't going to allow anything to stop my work out. When I put it on and it said "Battery Low"....I decided that surely there was plenty of juice for a 30 minute workout. There most likely would have been if I hadn't timed my "laps", because it went dead with about 8 minutes to go.

Three-The right clothing is "essential" to a good run.
I have what I think are really good running shoes (Reebok Adidas Bounce), and great summer running clothing (running shorts, tech tank, and wicking running socks with great arch support), but I "need" better winter gear. Ideally I'd like some wind-proof pants and a wind-proof jacket, and some Under Armour...and some kind of runner's gloves. The backs of my hands get so cold, but when I wear my winter gloves they get way too hot.

and Four-I really do love to run. Doing it wrong isn't fun. Being sore isn't fun. Getting ready to go out there and do it isn't fun. Getting started isn't fun. But, when I'm done I feel so great. I am really looking forward to the day when I can run for a few miles. Part of the reason I am so committed to progressing slowly is that I want this to be a life change not just a flight of fancy hobby to be dropped after I make my Rocket City goal in December. My body feel so much better when I'm in the habit of running. (There's so much more to say about this, but I'll save that for my other blog.)

I haven't ever been a serious runner. Even when I was in the military, I never really got into it. There have been times in my life when I've started up again, only to later allow life's circumstances to derail me. What I think I need to do is to keep the post-running feeling firmly in mind and work to make the drudgery of it all not quite so laborious.  


Side Note: Technical Gobity-Goop---I have a Garmin 405 HRM (heart rate monitor). It is a device that goes around my chest and connects via blue tooth to a wrist watch looking thing. It keeps track of my heart rate, my pace, my route (by GPS), elevation, calories expended, ...really everything you can think of about the run. It also has a feature that will time laps. I use it to compare my running intervals.  I start the timer when I leave...walk 15 minutes...press the lap button and jog for 30 seconds and press the lap button again. I "lap" every time I run. This will give me some data about what my heart is doing, how fast I'm going and how fast I'm recovering. Hopefully all this information will help me plan and run better in the future!!