Just one of the....

boys?

Why do I feel the need to compete with the men in my life. Not on a mental level. We are talking strictly running/racing etc.

Why have I always been driven by the fast men in my life?

It needs to stop, no seriously! It is good to be driven, but note to self: I am not a man! And I will probably never run or bike like one (Lets face it kids most men aren't great swimmers, at least the triathletes aren't, so I have a shot at that right?) See this is my problem!


Anyways last night we did the regular Tuesday thang. I got there early and did a loop with CK and B. Then we did 6 more miles with the group. Instead of hill repeats this week we did a 2 mile pick up for one of the loops. Start at your previous pace and pick it up each half mile until you are at 5K pace at the end.

For some reason I have it in my head that I should stay with CK. Well that was fine for a mile. Then the ice and my legs had issues with that. The boys were still within reach but by 1.5 they were blowing me out of the water. I find it amazing how they can go the same speed regardless of the paths condition. When I hit the snowy or icy patches I cannot easily stay the same speed. Why is this? Am I just a wimp? Regardless I still had a good run. 8+ miles in 1:13 average pace around 8:50

Stats:
loop 1: 16:37
loop 2: 17:27
loop 3: 3:45, 3:29, 3:23, 3:18
loop 4: 21:49.64

Every week I am determined to stick it out with the guys on repeats etc. Why is this? What drives this insanity? Both B and B2 just ran 3 hour marathons. What makes me think I can hang with them on hill repeats? Who the heck knows...

This is something I need to work on.

end rant...

tonight I got in 40 minutes on my trainer. Popped in Office Space and cycled to my hearts content. I got a heart rate monitor with my trainer for X-mas from my parents. Pretty cool. I have never used one and I have no clue what my heart rate should be at while cycling but it is a cool new gadget to say the least.

I do everything trying to keep a high cadence. I did the first ten minutes on a medium gear and my heart rate stayed around 100. I went up a gear for the next ten minutes, heart rate went up to around 115. Up another gear, heart rate up to 120ish. Then for the last ten minutes I did a 5 minute climb and a 5 minute slow descent. My heart rate got up over 170 at the "top of the hill."
After the ride I did 100 crunches and some stretching. After that my heart rate went down around 80.

What is normal for a 24 year old chick? Anyone have any clue?

I don't really need to rely on a monitor when I run. I have been running so long I pretty much know what tempo I need to be at to be in aerobic, anaerobic state, etc.

I am off to bed, I am going to seriously try to wake up early tomorrow and get to the pool. We shall see though.

It is in the 40s here in Cleveland, and it is lovely! I may even get to ride outside this weekend!

8 comments:

Cliff said...

Why do I feel the need to compete with the men in my life. Not on a mental level.

Why not? Our mental level is very low. We just grunt most of the time :)

HR is different from person to person. The important is finding your Latec Threshold (LT). This is the point where your body is generating more Latec acid then your body can remove it. The idea is to stay below the LT and stay within the aerobic zone. Well , that's what I am doing.

Toasty said...

Bet you have got the boys nervous and that is making them run faster. From what I remember your marathon time wasn't too shabby. I like the photo, it looks like everyone is grinning despite the cold.

Okolo said...

Don't give up trying to keep keep up with the boys, soon you'll be passing us, I mean them.

Hey, you are doing Boston? Cool. I'm doing it with TNT. See you there (ha).

Now, as for your BloggerHeadz.com header, email what you've done or what you are working on and your pictures and/or thoughts and design ideas to headz [at] bloggerheadz.com.

Your email didn't come through in your comment.


Okolo

Spandex King said...

There are slower boys. Stay away from me.

Chad said...

Elizabeth, I think part of the "problem" is that you're fast. There probably aren't a ton of women that you can train with.

I think it's great to have people (men, women, young, old - it doesn't matter) that can push you in training - just not everyday.

It doesn't surprise me that you can keep up with 3-hour guys on the hills. Last year I trained with a gal that ran like 3:37. She was a billygoat on the hills.

I'm not a HRM expert, but I know, at the same effort, it'll be lower on the bike than on the run. So if your LT is 175 on the run, it might be 165 on the bike.

Anonymous said...

E - as others have said, HR at LT is an important paramater to measure for HR-based training. You've probably heard me go on about this stuff ad nausium over at my blog... Your best bet, if you want to train by heart rate, is to do a simple LT test (running), and approximate all your training zones for running and cycling from that number.

Rae said...

Hey! I think it's perfectly normal for you to try to keep up with the guys. For me, having someone to chase keeps me moving faster than I would push myself (a main reason I love racing!) For me it's not necessarily guys, it's anyone in front of me - male, female, jogging stroller! As long as you don't push yourself to exhaustion, why not??

I LOVE Office Space! One of the best movies, EVER!

E-Speed said...

thanks everyone. I am working on being a bit more realistic about my workout expectations. maybe I will catch those guys eventually ;)

Thanks for the HR advice too!