Greetings from the Valley
Friday's run: 8 miles of General Aerobic at 8:55 pace
I had a pretty iffy run today (Friday). I had some sort of stomach bug from late Wednesday through this morning, so I couldn't do the 8 miles that my plan called for Thursday evening. I did, however, manage to kick it in time to feel okay to fly down to Los Angeles and visit my family (as planned), and I am writing this from my Big-Sur-Marathon-Finishing-Brother's computer.
My iffy run can be attributed to several factors:
It is simply a different running environment around here. There are some advantages (long boulevards that present few stoplights against you, and only at mile-long intervals), but those same advantages can be disadvantages (lots of cars – din and fumes – on those long boulevards). One fun part was to cross a small pedestrian bridge over the LA River (yes, that same LA River as seen in Repo Man, amongst other films), as shown here, courtesy of Google Earth.
I also do think it was at least 15 degrees warmer that what I've been running in lately (much of that had to do with starting in the late afternoon and not being next to a cold body of water, such as the San Francisco Bay). At first, I thought I was a gonner, since the sun was a bit warm. But almost immediately, a cool breeze swept up and mitigated that effect. For over half the run, I was running in late afternoon shade, but by the end, I was using some of my water to moisten my fingers to wipe my eyes clear of sweat.
There was also a very nice hill on Oxnard Street that, since I chose in advance to run the route this way, came at mile 5 instead of mile 1. The bottom of the hill felt treacherous, but when I was within striking distance of the top, I felt my pace pick up considerably, and I was certainly going faster at that point than at any other point in the run.
But the heart rate monitor doesn't lie: average of 156 with that pace? I wasn't 100% for a General Aerobic run.
I had a pretty iffy run today (Friday). I had some sort of stomach bug from late Wednesday through this morning, so I couldn't do the 8 miles that my plan called for Thursday evening. I did, however, manage to kick it in time to feel okay to fly down to Los Angeles and visit my family (as planned), and I am writing this from my Big-Sur-Marathon-Finishing-Brother's computer.
My iffy run can be attributed to several factors:
- My iffy condition from the day(s) before (I slept a lot more than usual)
- The temperature outside (I'm in the Valley, after all)
- I felt perpetually thirsty
- I had had lunch a little too late for the hour of my run
It is simply a different running environment around here. There are some advantages (long boulevards that present few stoplights against you, and only at mile-long intervals), but those same advantages can be disadvantages (lots of cars – din and fumes – on those long boulevards). One fun part was to cross a small pedestrian bridge over the LA River (yes, that same LA River as seen in Repo Man, amongst other films), as shown here, courtesy of Google Earth.
I also do think it was at least 15 degrees warmer that what I've been running in lately (much of that had to do with starting in the late afternoon and not being next to a cold body of water, such as the San Francisco Bay). At first, I thought I was a gonner, since the sun was a bit warm. But almost immediately, a cool breeze swept up and mitigated that effect. For over half the run, I was running in late afternoon shade, but by the end, I was using some of my water to moisten my fingers to wipe my eyes clear of sweat.
There was also a very nice hill on Oxnard Street that, since I chose in advance to run the route this way, came at mile 5 instead of mile 1. The bottom of the hill felt treacherous, but when I was within striking distance of the top, I felt my pace pick up considerably, and I was certainly going faster at that point than at any other point in the run.
But the heart rate monitor doesn't lie: average of 156 with that pace? I wasn't 100% for a General Aerobic run.
posted by Brent at
10:15 PM
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