Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Still running

I had two good runs last week--1 Monday and 1 Thursday.  Monday I did 1.65 miles at an average 12min/mi pace, and it felt pretty good.  Thursday was my fit test. I did 1.5 mi at an 11 min/mi pace; it felt harder. ;-)  I didn't score as well overall on the fit test b/c I've gotten fatter since my last one, so I lost some points there. I managed to make up half a point by doing 30 push-ups instead of just 26--0.1 pt per push-up for those last few.

Friday I went to the Polar fitness site and set up a new program. I'm going to alternate running and biking (once I add air to my tires anyway; they've gotten low with this cold weather). I was supposed to start yesterday, but I was really tired from staying up too late Sunday night. Maybe I'll go out later tonight. I miss the daylight in the evening! But I'm also glad to have the daylight in the mornings. Sigh, can't lose for winning.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Brrr!

A very chilly run at Aberdeen Proving Grounds tonight! I was wearing dark blue shorts, running shirt, arm warmers, red calf sleeves, purple baja, and of course socks and shoes.I had on my half-fingered gloves, so my fingertips kept getting cold, esp in the wind. It started pretty typically, running on the sidewalk in an unfamiliar place. There was one notable difference: I could run longer with less effort, well, I think it was 8 min after a 5 min warm-up, but it felt easier than the other day, not just in my legs but in my breathing. (Actually, with the compression sleeves, my calves and shins felt tireder, or maybe I just need to get used to them--they're tight!

I started out behind the hotel and saw some deer! A young buck and 5 does/fawns.  I tried to get pictures, but my phone couldn't take a good one at that distance (not so far really, but it's a phone, not really a camera). As the deer crossed the street I saw there were a lot more! Like another dozen! Pretty cool. I headed out along the street planning on just doing an out and back. I ended up making a loop out a ways and then heading back.

This is the best shot I could get of the buck.

As I re-approached the hotel, I still had time left I needed to run, so I ran past and around to the right where I wouldn't have known there was a road if not for the MapMyRun app map. Turns out we're quite close to the water! I ran past Outdoor Rec and through the grass to a park. Paused for a bit to swing and ran some more past all the playground equipment. It was great running through the grass and leaves--better than trail running b/c I didn't have to watch my feet as much. Couldn't really, it was getting dark. ;-) I passed another deer--maybe 50 feet away?--on the way back. She stood so still as we stared at each other. And to think, I almost didn't got out b/c I was really tired and new it was cold.

OK, so My Tracks. I uploaded the map today. I had selected to save a kml file to my SD card, but there was nothing in the folder when I looked. So I resaved as a gpx, plugged my phone into the computer and uploaded the file. It saved just fine including route/timing data. Sweet!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Faster & new app

I finally did my second run of the week tonight. It felt good, & I felt faster. I used a new app this time: Google's My Tracks. It has a map screen, a time & elevation screen, & a stats screen. One thing I didn't like was that the map screen--in addition to the map--only showed time elapsed, unlike Map My Run's which also shows pace. On the My Tacks stats page, it shows speed in mph while I prefer min/mile. It also seriously cut off a few corners; I haven't seen anything like that since I got my new phone. One cool feature is being able to replay the route run; I think I saw a comment that it also records music played during the run & plays as party of the playback.

The run went well & felt good. There was still a lot of walking, but I also did a few (3) sprints. I would have done more, but I felt like if I did I'd re-experience the red chile chicken burrito I'd had for dinner 3.5 hrs before.

Tomorrow I get to find out how easy (or hard) it is to transfer the My Tracks file to Map My Run.