Sunday, December 27, 2015

10km again (with a brand new heart rate monitor!)

Santa Claus (aka Mam & Dad) brought me a nice running watch with heart rate monitor. It's a very useful device that measures the heartbeat while running through a belt to be worn around the chest. The display shows different data, such as the maximum heart rate, information about calories and of course the time. The function that I find particularly useful is the percentage of maximum rate, as all over the last 6 months I've been training my aerobic endurance to increase my resistance in the medium-long distance (10km). My maximum heart rate is 181, so my training zone for the aim I set should be between 80% and 90% of this value (according to some theories), but I prefer to take into consideration the higher zone, between 90% and 100%. The watch helps me monitor my hear rate according to this parameter. 

My new HRM watch
This morning I ran 10 km in 49:22 (4:56 min/km) and I learned something interesting: I noticed that the first 1000 meters are quite stressful for my heart (it goes beyond 200 beats), but after 5 minutes the pace gets normal (around 80%). After the 7th km it reaches 100%, which is ok. The last 2 km the watch showed 101%, and during the last 500 meters, which I sprinted in around 2 minutes, the percentage reached the peak of 104. Now my (very hard) task is to keep the rate below 100% for longer distances, up to 21 km. Will our hero accomplish this mission?

Thursday, December 17, 2015

7 km Personal Bests from August to December 2015

7K is an intersting distance to cover for a runner. On one hand, it's not that long and exhausting and can be run even in less than 30 minutes (if one is fit, of course), on the other hand it requires a certain effort, if the runner opts for a brisk pace (let's say, 4:30 minutes per km). Here below you can find the list of my best performances on this distance, from August to December. I decided to update the list today, after a satisfying session concluded with a decent time.

7 km Personal Bests

1. September, 22nd -  32:39
2. November, 3rd    -  32:59
3. August, 8th          -  33:00
4. December, 25th   -  33:00
5. December, 17th  -  33:45
6. December, 12th   - 34:25
Standard: 35:00 (5min/km)



Sunday, December 6, 2015

Numb feet again: updated information

Do you remember my post about the "numb foot effect" after 35 minutes of running? Well, here it comes again! 
The last time I ran 10 km was October, 13th. Since that day, I haven't run more than 7 km and longer than 40 minutes without break, due to different reasons. Today I've resumed my long-distance running: my intention was to cover at least 8 km or even 10 km, but after 32 minutes (my pace was around 4:50 minutes per km) I perceived the same hitching sensation I used to feel some months ago, so I stopped. 
This fact corroborates my theory, according to which it takes constant long-distance exercise in order to avoid this annoying problem, that seems to reappear each time after 4-6 weeks of inactivity.  I will keep you posted about further development.