Happy Heart!

 

I've been following Krysten's blog for awhile now. She's truly an inspiration. She has a pacemaker & had a mastectomy due do the BRCA gene & she still runs marathons & does triathlons. Seriously, there really isn't an excuse not to exercise. Krysten lost her dad not long ago to heart disease so she's organized the Happy Heart Project to raise money for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Along with all of things she's doing she's also hosting a Virtual 5K. You know - you make a donation, then run a 5K where ever you are this week & then you're entered to win a ton of prizes! Very cool right??  So I signed up. I'm running the Corporate Cup 5K Saturday but I ran this morning too.

 

I haven't ran in over a week. Not ideal & I REALLY don't like to skip that many runs but stuff happens. I did walk 2 mi. on the treadmill while at the beach. Lame, I know but at least it was something I got up bright & early. Well, early but not bright since it was 4:45 am. Anywho, I got it done. In the pic on the left you can see (if you have good eyes) that my average heart rate was only 158. I remember when I first started running it was always in the 190's. Definitely a good thing!

My run was definitely slower than I would've liked - I average 11:21/mi. BUT I'm ok with it. A 5K is a 5K. The last half mile I did some speed work. I don't do it very often & it was actually more about getting finished with the run so I could some Powerade! I love Grape Powerade Zero. It's sweetened with Splenda & I know a lot of people think it's the devil but I don't. So my last mile with sprints was 9:32. If  only I could run a whole race at that pace! I also didn't have sunburn issues. If you remember I probably have 3rd degree burns on the top of my feet. I'm reminded of just how painful it is every time I step into the bathtub!

Then it was home to stretch & foam roll. I used to never do this. I didn't start until I trained for the Half & then I did it regularly & I definitely think it makes a difference with soreness & recovery.

So if you're looking for a good exercise/health related blog check out The Misadventures of a Darwinian Fail.

Toodles!