Lisa Sabin’s - Running And Being

I’ve got one more week of hard training before I begin to taper for the Las Vegas 1/2 Marathon.  The Half Marathon will be a good test before continuing on to train for the Boston Marathon.  My goal for the half is to have a good run, continue to stay injury-free.  I am also training a group to run this race with me.  12 of us are going down to run in December.  It will be the first half marathon for 3 of the runners in the group.  Brad is training for the marathon, hoping to qualify for Boston, and to beat Phil, who is walking the half marathon.  Brad needs to run 3:15.59, which is a 7:29 pace for 26.2 miles!  Phil will need to walk the half marathon faster than 15 minute pace to beat Brad’s time.   Walking that fast is hard.  It’s very exciting!

Our dentist’s office is right by Greenlake.  My son had an appointment today that was supposed to take 1.5 hours.  I brought my running gear with me so I could get in a run instead of hanging out in the waiting room.

I decided to do an interval/tempo run today.  I started out with an 8 minute warm up and then did some quick striders.  I picked up the pace progressively with each one.  I did 4 striders at 5K pace.  I settled in to an easy pace for 2 minutes and then ran my first tempo interval.  My goal was to run a steady pace at Rate of Perceived Exertion (R.P.E.) of 8 for 4 minutes.  I cooled down for 2 minutes and then did another tempo interval of 6 minutes, followed by a 2 minute cool down.  The last tempo interval was 8 minutes.  This took me through a nice 4 mile workout.

I like doing this workout with the GPS, because I can look down and see how fast I am running at any given moment.  I can also add on distance to get in the mileage I want. 

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 11/13/2007
• Time: 10:00:00
• Total Time: 00:32:19.00
• Average Heart rate: 158
• Max Heart rate: 170
• Calories: 350
• Distance: 4 miles
• Average Pace: 8:04.52/mile

Today we met at Green Lake Park, just south of Green Lake. I brought my GPS, so that we could accurately track our miles. I mapped out a 1 mile loop around the track and Lower Woodland Park.

The goal of the run was to use Rate of Perceived Exertion to connect mentally and physically with our bodies. The Borg Scale is a great way to distinguish Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). I simplify the Borg scale further by using a rating of 1-10. 1 is very very light - 10 is exhaustion, extremely difficult.

We ran 8 mile long laps. We started slow and everyone was able to stay in the aerobic zone of 70-80%. All in all a nice work out. It’s getting easier every week.

Vive Las Vegas!

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 10/13/2007
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 1:20:14.00
• Average Heart rate: 146
• Max Heart rate: 158
• Calories: 600
• Distance: 8.07 miles
• Average Pace: 9:57.01/mile

Today I had a great run out on the Burke-Gilman trail. My friend Michelle met me and we got in 4.4 miles on a nice soft surface. Luckily, the weather cooperated. No rain or wind, just nice cool running weather.

I brought out my Garmin Forerunner 301 GPS Unit so that I could track how fast we were running and have the exact distance. In 2004 I had the opportunity to run with a friend who had a GPS, during the Rock N’ Roll Arizona Marathon. I broke down and bought one this year so that I could get a little more feedback from my training. One thing I like about it is you know what pace you are running at all times. It’s amazing how your pace can change throughout a workout. It has a heart rate monitor on it and a virtual trainer. You can set it to beep at you when you fall off pace. Since I purchased mine, they came out with another unit that is a little more advanced, the Garmin Forerunner 205, this one tells you how many calories are burnt during a workout.

Technology can be great, especially when you are running in unfamiliar surroundings. It’s also fun to have the data to track your progress. I know I hit my speed target today, thanks to my GPS!

One day closer to Boston. One run at a time….