Toys and progress

I work from home one day a week, and usually eat at my desk while working ... because I burn up "lunch hour" time exercising. Today I went for the second to last run in the Couch-to-5K workout, and did it outside with my new toy -- a Garmin Forerunner 305. It's a combination fancy stopwatch, GPS receiver, and heart rate monitor.

The run itself was fine, though the added feedback from the Garmin impacted me in a number of ways. I felt slow a couple times, and saw that I was, so I sped up. I felt over-exerted at times, saw how high my heart rate was, and got worried, because I really didn't want to slow down. I felt good a few times, and saw my pace was higher than expected, and it put a smile on my face.

But the real interesting data comes when you get home and upload it all into the PC. I can look at the map and say, right, when I came over this hill my HR was here, but my pace was also fast, looks like I was trying to run up it strong, and here I slowed down and ... well, whatever. It's fitness geekery at its finest and I look forward to tinkering with it.

What concerns me is how high my HR was going for the entire duration of the run. During warmup and cooldown it stayed where I'd expect, but it jumped up above 160 for the majority of the time I was running, and peaked up over 180 a couple times. It's not that I can't run for 30 minutes at this exertion level; clearly I can. But if I don't find a way to lower that HR, it's going to put a cap on my long distance running.

Looks like I have something new to ponder over the winter.

Fitness update: hovering on the south side of 200 pounds for past week, with weights fluctuating in a 2-pound range. Completed Week 9 Day 2, which I believe you can see here. Jess has finished the C25K and next week will start increasing her times. I find myself struggling more with junk food cravings; combination of seasonal shifts and less drive to deprive myself now that my weight is lower?