So two runs this week. Starting to get back into the habit is hard however. I really miss the shape I was in a month ago but I will get there soon!
Did two runs this week, both of them were horrible, the first was a 4 km run at an extremely low pace, 9:15 min/km and today I did another one at 8:40 min/km but that was only a 3 km run. My body really did not want to run today so it was all in my mind really. I had set out to do 4 km today as well but my body refused to do more than 2. So we reached a kind of compromise on 3 km. Not that good really but I think it is going the right way slowly. Next week it will start feel better I’m sure.
My last logged run was september 7 and today is october 7. I set out not knowing what my condition would be like but my usual warmup walking rendered about 15 bpm higher heart beat than I remembered so that was definitely an indication that it was going to get tough.
And it did. I managed to get around 2 laps of my usual track and it took 37 minutes to complete 4 km. However even if the tempo of 9:15/km is just a sliver better than walking real fast, I actually did it. I tried to keep my pulse around 160-165, I have found it gives me the best burn workout I can get. At this heart rater I can keep going for some time without stopping and it gives me a good workout with plenty of sweat.
Today it was difficult to keep that rater even with the really slow running. On the second lap it started to creep up beyond 170 bpm and several parts of the track was done around 170-175 bpm rather than the 160-165 that was my goal.
So definitely I have lost condition. I have also gained weight these four weeks but that is about to come right off again as I start running more regularly so I am not too worried about that right now. And condition comes rather fast, especially when you start low :)
Even though my 7 km run looks distant right now I am sure that in 3-4 weeks time I might be able to repeat it if my health stays okay, that is.
Still nothing but things are getting better. Now the flu is gone and I have only the urticaria to battle. Right know I have a blood filled blister under my left foot but I hope it is gone soon.
No training this week either. Really crappy. Went to the doctors on tuesday and got cortisoned badly, that worked, kept the rash and itch in check pretty well, could get some sleep but then I went back to work on wednesday and that was a bit too soon. The cortisone treatment was for 4 days, so that made tuesday to friday special days indeed but then I was setting out the cortisone and going for the antihistamines and what happens?
By Saturday night I was covered in urticaria all over my head and face, looking like something straight out of a 1950ies creature feature movie. Not a pretty sight. And it hurt — and the itching is hard to describe. Can’t give in to it though, that just make things bleed and scar. I have had a rough night now but I have woke up feeling a little better actually. This might be because the human body produce it’s own cortisone in the morning or … perhaps I am slowly getting better.
I even played with the thought of putting a photograph of my horrible looks on my home page but then decided against it, the world might not be ready for that kind of disfigurement yet.
My better half Jeanette is having the flu and I believe that is what onset it this time for me as well. She’s feverish and coghy and tired and have all the classic symptoms. Even though I probably had a bit of that (last night my throat was a little sore) I think I got off the flu easy. Let’s hope this leads to something good, like immunization to A(H1N1) better known as the bacon plague.
My hands still hut a bit and I still don’t dare that perhaps I will now start to get better because I know when nightfall comes and cortisone in the body is switched to melatonine instead then these kinds of rashes usually gets worse. I go from cold sweats to hot spells regularly still.
And now the time has passed enough that I no longer longingly pass my sneakers in the hallway. I have forgotten the joy of running. I need to nurture the addiction once more and learn how to start slow. Not that I think I have lost everything but I believe there will be a couple of weeks of build-up before I can get back to where I was.
Not good this week either. Got hit by Urticaria, a skin rash and are now on cortisone and antihistamines to get rid of it. Cortisone doses of the level I am getting right now drives my resting pulse up quite a lot and I was told by the doctor to not make too strenous exercise during that time. The cortisone will be just a few more days but after that I will keep on the antihistamines for a while which I am ok to take and run so I will give it a go.
I miss the running, my shoes are calling to me when I pass them by on my way out through the door. Tomorrow I am missing my sixth scheduled run in a row but I am not too worried about it.
This has not been the best week for me. I have gotten som kind of infection and feel terrible so I skipped the long run on saturday. I did the two shorter runs which went well though but I will probably miss some runs next week also as I am not feeling well at all.
The first week on my new schedule went far over what I expected. It is really crazy but I have not felt so good with my running in a long time. There was no pains what so ever this week, and not really that much hardship out in the track either except that interval running which was tough but worked out really well.
So my first run this week was a shorter and slower run to just recover and this went well. I then did the intervals on Wednesday and that was really tough. Cardio and VO2 max training really. I put the intervals far too long to be effective, I will correct that for the next week. Instead of 10 min intervals with 2 min walks I will run 3/2 or 3/1 but based on my pulse rather than on time. I would then be able to run to 90% of maximum pulse and then walk it down to 80% or even 75% and then run it up to 90% again in intervals around the path I usually goes.
But the highlight this week was my fabulous long distance run. I set out slow, very slow, I got the advice to start ”silly slow” and then just very gradually pick up the speed after the first click or so. Which I did, I then kept the pulse around 155-160 and I really had to hold back the first couple of kilometers.
Then I entered the Zone. Seriously. The feet pounding the ground just disappeared around me and all I was aware of was my regular, but not too strained, breathing and I could go on for ever like this. Uphill was not a problem, I just increased the cadence and lowered the speed and downhill I compensated for the loss of time keeping the tempo around 8:45 per km. That’s really slow, about 25% faster than you walk at a good pace of course. But it does not matter by being able to keep this pace for a full hour and not stopping until the 7 km was up I got a really really good workout.
The best really. I feel it in my legs, my foot soles are a little hurting but not that bad. During the running however no pains at all. Nothing, just pure floating over the ground, the full moon above shining down on the forest path that I regularly work out on. Instead of the normal 2 laps I do I did 3 laps and then down to the water line.
Really great. I feel so great it’s difficult to describe it. Just… WOW!
Some of you already know my fascination for wrist watches and therefore I thought I should share with you my latest aquisition, the Suunto Core outdoor wristwatch. Suunto is Finnish and means direction and this is a good name for these watches. There are many different models to chose from and I decided to get the Suunto Core model which seems to get you lots of functions for small money and the most all-round watch there was. Or, sorry, wristtop computer as these watches are sometimes referred to.
I am a guy who like walking in the woods, hiking, trekking and just generally being outdoor when possible especially in the summer time. I try to make at least a few day trips and if possible an overnight in a tent as well every summer as a minimum, it is something special when you are cooking in the wilderness, sleeping in a tent and generally having to struggle a little more than you normally do every day to and from work. If nothing else you appreciate a nice bed when you come home again :)
On top of that I am an unchangeable gadget-guy, and I really enjoy knowing the altitude I am on right now, the bearing I am walking in, my position, the time, when the sun rises and sets on the latitude that I am right now and many other things. So my latest addition to things I won’t leave home without now is a Suunto Core wristwatch.
This little gem can do a lot of things and it is a watch specially designed for outdoorsmanship more than anything else. This is not the first ”trekker’s watch” I have owned, I also have an ”Origo” watch but after a particularly rough outing in the United Arab Emirates a couple of years ago the altimeter broke on that one. So I have decided to get myself a new watch and now I recently bought it.
The Suunto Core watch keeps two times, good for traveling and it has what you expect from a modern digital watch, countdown (99 min max) and works wel as a stopwatch (24 h max). On top of that you can program it with the closest city and it will show the time the sun rises and sets for the date, something that changes drastically right now, the day becomes longer with about 6 minutes every day now and the nights shorter here in Stockholm.
The watch also contains three interesting functions for the hiker not normally found on wrist watches and they are altimeter that shows how high over the sea you are at the moment, barometer showing the air pressure (sea level equivalent) and an electronic compass.
Suunto Core, outdoors sportswatch
The altimeter and barometer are actually two faces of the same coin here. You can select the profile yourself, if you want the watch to be in altimeter mode when you climb, then you can set it to barometric mode when you stop for the night and the watch will tell you the air pressure and assume that you are staying on the same level. You can not get both at the same time though because both the barometer and the altimeter works from the same air pressure sensor. If you climb a mountain the air pressure lowers with every meter you climb, the watch senses this change in air pressure and can therefore know how many meters you have scaled. In barometric mode you fix the altitude and the watch instead registers the changes in air pressure that preceeds an oncoming storm or weather front.
The watch can automatically shift between altimeter and barometer mode, it understands when you start climbing because the air pressure shifts too fast and then it switches to altimeter. If you stay it will after 12 minutes of no change in the altitude (or very small changes) shift back to barometric mode. Brilliant. Over a full days walking around I generally don’t have to recalibrate it for more than 20-40 meters error by the end of the day.
In barometric mode it can also tell you if there is a sudden drop in air pressure. This might signify an oncoming sqall or storm and you can set an audible and visible alarm on the watch to go off if this happens. There is also a 24 hour trend graph that will show you the changes in barometric pressure over the last day and night. There is also an arrow indicator showing you if the air pressure is stable, tends to rise, tends to drop and the attitude for the last 3 and 6 hours. Great for checking if the current weather is stable. I have observed the barometric pressure alarm go off twice. In both accounts it started snowing heavily hours later so I believe it is working pretty well!
The last function of the pressure gauge is the ”snorkeling feature” where it can tell you when you snorcle in the hot waters of the Maldives or some other nice place how deep you have been as maximum and how deep you are now. Not quite a diving instrument (watch should not be submerged more than 10 meters really) but it is still a pretty fun feature.
A logging function can be used to keep track of your climbing and descending over time if you want. It will log the altitude and the current time as often as you want and you may also save the log for a later review. You can also set a reference altitude and the watch will show you how much above or below your reference you currenly are.
You can also have it show accumulated inclines declines, something that I thought was pretty neat in a ski slope…
There is also a temperature measurement but since the watch is warmed by your arm it generally does not show air temperature. If you take your watch of and leave it for 30 minutes or so it should give you a pretty good temperature reading though. The temperature is also necessary for the accuracy of the air pressure measurement.
The compass is great, works well but uses battery more than other thngs and because of this the watch will turn it off after one minute of operation; you will then have to press a button to turn it on again for another minute. If you have the backlight lit during compas operation it will flash as it goes dark for each measurement that is done – about 2 per second. The compass can be set to try to stay in a certain direction, it will show with arrows how much in error your current direction is and point you in the right direction and the precision is actually pretty good in the woods. Calibration is simple, turn it on, slowly spin a full circle clockwise and it will recalibrate itself. In urban environment there are sometimes problems where there are heavy electrical machinery and other ferro-magnetic materials at work that will confuse it – try looking at it while a metro train in the underground drives past… but most of the time it can be used there as well.
All in all I really love this watch. I recommend it for everyone who loves to be outdoors, hiking, fishing, hunting, climbing, skiing… this is for you!
Alien world - Sunset I post-processed this in Adobe Lightroom after thinking the originall was a bit bland and dull. I kind of like the result here.
Sunset with CanoeI believe that the canoe is making most of this December sunset picture. It is interesting how such a small object in such a small part of the photograph can become the main focus of interest really.The post process included some contrast fixing and white balance touch-up.
