Ok, so I’m feeling ill-used today, but in a good way. I had a tough weight workout yesterday morning, then BJJ class last night and then went for a run this morning. I’m definitely tired, and I’m thinking that on days like this it will behoove me to increase my carb intake, especially in the morning, but that’s neither here nor there.
It was finally my first chance to use my FitBit Ionic, which I got middle of last month. I got it specifically because I like being able to track my sleep and my heart rate as a general measure of my physical health. When I got sick last week, my rest heart rate was definitely quite elevated, and now it’s back down closer to normal. So this is probably a decent measurement tool for this.
Additionally, since my goal was to get back into running regularly, it was nice to have a tool that does all the things I need while running in one shop. Aside from using GPS to track my run, I like having a way to monitor heart rate while running so as to ensure that I maintain my beats per minute within the appropriate heart rate zone (Zone 2 in most cases, between 131 and 145 beats per minute), as well as having music to listen to while running.
This watch happens to do it all, it even stores Pandora stations so that I don’t need to bring my phone with me to listen to music. If this morning’s run was any indication of how well it works, then I’m very happy about it.
I realized in my current conditioning that worrying about pace and distance is largely unimportant. I should be focusing more on time on my feet, and go for time markers rather than distance markers. So my plan for the first 2 training blocks is to run 3 times per week, with each run being in Zone 2 to help develop an aerobic base. Runs 1 and 2 will be just 30 minutes long, and Saturday will be my longer run, which will be stretched out to 60 minutes instead.
This morning, I managed to go 2.16 miles in the 30 minutes, which is terrible pacing, but again, that isn’t my primary concern right now.
It was a good run, so now I just have to continue building. This should also help my lifting as it’s non-competitive stressor, and will likely help with inter-set recovery.
Ramble on Fitness 