Built like a racehorse, stubborn as a mule: HR Training - Day 30

30 FREAKIN' DAYS!!!

Even I can't believe I've hung in this long! Although, technically it has been over 30 days since I had started dabbling in aerobic-HR training about a week or two before the VO2Max testing. I'll make a mild comparison at the end of this post.

After a few calls, I finally got my lab results from my physical. All my fears came to rest. No sign of diabetes. Glucose levels were 95, Hemoglobin A1C's were a 5.2% - diabetics are usually over 6%, non-diabetics are under this number. So I'm still a former "Type II" and despite my increase in size, I'm still good. Cholesterol, HDL, LDL, Triglycerides - they're all in excellent ranges. The nurse that gave me the info was very impressed with the data and wanted to know how I have such good numbers. I do get amused when people get shocked at the idea of ultrarunning, but you can't argue the end results of the training. :-) (Oh yeah, I also agreed to give the doc a second chance. What can I say? The nurse was really convincing!)

As for the training today, I decided to be a jackass and not warm-up to test the waters. A mistake? You betcha. A standard Base Builder run, kept at the 10m-5m-10m-5m-10m:Zone1/Zone2 pattern. I treated the first 10 minutes as a warm-up by walking a decent amount of it before running. However, since I didn't warm-up like I should have, it reflected within the 5 minute-Zone 2 bursts. My HR was already hitting the Anaerobic Threshold of 161 bpm at 5.0 MPH. That's 12 minutes a mile! I've ran faster at that higher HR before! However, the second 5 minute burst was better since my body finally was in the groove and I was able to run to 6.2 MPH before it was over.

There were some good things I did notice though and compared to the first few times when I started this training, this is what I've noticed:

1.) My walking pace has increased (able to shuffle at 16-17 minutes/mile), but my HR stays pretty low (in the 100-110 bpm range).
2.) My aerobic pace ground speed has increased. On the treadmill (w/1% incline), I'm able to cruise at a 4.0 MPH (15 minutes/mile) and have an HR ranging from 128-134 bpm usually (although I do experience some HR drift that bleeds over past my Aerobic Threshold of 138 bpm). On flat ground, I'm able to move at a sub-15 min/mile pace (best efforts at a sub-13 min/mile pace) and my HR stays around 135-138 bpm and tends to hold steady.
3.) My comfy pace on the treadmill is usually a sub-12 min/mile pace. Outdoors on flat roads, it goes between 10-11 min/mile.
4.) My fastest ground speed that could be considered a Tempo effort for the moment outdoors has been around a 9 min/mile pace, but I haven't had to hold it for too long compared to the other runs.
5.) The fastest speed I've done period during this training has been a sub-6 minute/mile pace when I went balls-out during the LSD Base run on Sunday. But the downhills kind of gave me an advantage, so I can't take all the credit.

Compared to when I first started, I was moving alot slower and having more HR difficulties. Body composition-wise, I haven't changed too much (lost about 2 lbs of just body fat only). However, this is also due to the fact that I have only been running and not doing anything else. I believe that once when I incorporate my CrossFit Hybrid training in the mix, I'll shed some of the excess fat that I don't use as fuel during my runs and I'll be better prepped for my races (and life in general).

12 days left of this plan. I'd love to know what happens afterwards. :-)