Tri-ing in the Holy Land

The ramblings of a struggling triathlete in Israel

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Location: Israel

I'm the mother of 3, a teacher and a couch potato turned triathlete.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

This was amazing!

Ok, here I am, getting all impressed by a silly watch again.  I can't help it -- this is the coolest training gadget I've ever owned!

I've decided that I'm un-injured enough to start running again (actually, I've been running, but not much).  So tonight, I decided to do the workout my coach had left us (he's in France), minus one repeat, as I still don't want to run over 5 km or so.  The workout was a 2 km warmup followed by 3 times 1.5 km at race pace.  This was my chance to try my first "advanced workout" with my Garmin.  Here's what it looked like:

1) 2 km with heart rate between 130 bpm and 148 bpm (this was the warmup)
2) 2:00 rest (enough time to get my heart rate down to 120 or lower and to do some stretching
3) 1.5 km at target pace of between 4:58/km and 6:12/km (yes, sadly, this is my race pace, even if my Garmin calls it a "fast jog")
4) 2:00 rest
5) 1.5 km at target pace of between 4:58/km and 6:12/km

The 2 km warmup turned out to be quite a challenge.  It wasn't easy for me to keep my heart rate below 148, especially going uphill. At times, I felt like I was running in place. For the most part, I managed it, though (my Garmin did scream at me a few times).  I ran the warmup at a pace of 6:56/km with an average heart rate of 143 bpm.  This might sound very slow (and it is, but it was just a warmup!), but it's actually faster than the pace that I ran my first ever 5k in 2002 and I thought I was going to die during that race.  Tonight, I thought I was going to start moving backwards if I didn't pick up the pace a bit.  I never knew that a warmup could be such a challenge!

The rest was easy, of course, and then came the first 1.5 km repeat.  It wasn't easy, especially the uphill section, but I managed to stay within my goal pace for the entire time and finished with an average pace of 5:33/km (and an average heart rate of 170 bpm).  I'm sure that if I hadn't had the Garmin, I would have slowed down.  The "fear" of being "yelled at" for not maintaining my goal pace kept me going (and apparently, I am capable of running at that pace or I would have died, right?).

I was very happy about the next 2:00 rest and also glad that I had the Garmin on and that it would only be 2:00, as without a watch to yell at me, I'm sure I would have cheated on the break and made it longer.

Then it was time to run again.  Once again, I didn't want to be yelled at, so I maintained my goal pace.  This time was slightly slower, thought not by all that much.  I finished with an average pace of 5:35/km and an average heart rate of 178 bpm.  Yes, that was the average!  My maximum heart rate was 188 bpm.  So much for the heart rate formula that tells you to subtract your age from 226 (220 if you're a man).  Either I don't know how old I am or the formula doesn't work (or I can't do math -- 226-42=184, right?)

That was it -- the workout was over!  I'd achieved my goals and I felt great (but a little bit tired -- it was only 5 km, but the last 3 km were hard!). 

Yes, I could have done this workout without my gadget, but I'm pretty sure I would have cheated here and there.  The silly beeps and messages motivated me to stick to my goal.  This is one great training aid.

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