Monday, November 3, 2014, 3:15 pm

5.01 mi, 91 ft gain, 47:12. Road through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I was not ready for the end of daylight savings time. It gets dark so early. The dark clouds didn’t help. Fortunately, it didn’t rain very hard. Ran out to the same empty lot as Saturday. Other than a slower pace, this run was a lot like Saturday’s run.

 

Tuesday, November 4, 2014, 3:45 pm

5.35 mi, 327 ft gain, 48:39. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I performed some shoe surgery last night, removing the heel cup from my red Altra Superior 1.5s. The second shoe went better. They’re more comfortable without the rigid piece against my heels. They seem to fit more snuggly as well. Without the rigid piece, the heel can conform to my heel better. It’s also softer. I’m hoping this helps with my heel/achilles issues.

I decided to try out the alteration today and headed for the tree farm. About the same level of discomfort as the past few days for about the same amount of time before warming up. The shoes seemed great. I’ll have to see how it feels tomorrow and after a couple more tests.

 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 6:01 pm

3.19 mi, 28 ft gain, 23:59. Road in town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Slightly more discomfort today than yesterday. I’m not sure if it was the shoes or the hills yesterday. But I still warmed up and sped up around 0.7 mi. I saw that I kept gradually going faster by about 1.4 mi. I decided to run some fartleks. I did a couple blocks at about 90%. I did that 5 times with 2-3 blocks in between each rep. I pushed the last one. I might have had one more in me. The last two reps were into the wind too.  Very minimal sprinkles, and the road was wet but not enough to splash up through the soles of my shoes.

Average paces for each rep: 4:54/mi, 4:51/mi, 4:54/mi, 4:50/mi, 4:57/mi

 

Thursday, November 6, 2014, 9:07 pm

4.3 mi, 309 ft gain, 37:31. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I made the same modifications to my blue pair of Superior 1.5s. The test seemed to go pretty well. Less discomfort today than yesterday. Ran the same way around the loop as Monday, but didn’t add the extra out and back this time.

I ordered a Mio Link a few days ago and it arrived today. So I tried testing it out. I downloaded the app on my phone to set it up. I got it to pair with my Suunto Ambit 2 R, but it wouldn’t show any data during the run. The Mio Link flashes different lights for different heart rate zones, which you can adjust, and that worked. I had the same problem trying to use my old Garmin heart rate monitor with my Suunto. It paired, but didn’t didn’t show any data.

As it turns out, I had search for HR monitor turned off in the settings for the watch.

 

Friday, November 7, 2014, 5:47 pm

4.25 mi, 311 ft gain, 38:05. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Another run in the dark. It was a little colder today. It seems to be taking me longer to get used to the cooler weather this year than I remember it taking in the past.

Anyway, I got the Mio Link to work today. But it didn’t seem very accurate. For the first half mile or so, it was reading around 70-88 bpm or so. I had it pretty tight, so I loosened it and it started to show a HR more of what I expected. As I went along and started to sweat, though, it started to read way higher than it should have. It was a downhill section. I sped up a little just because of gravity, but I wasn’t pushing the pace at all and it was showing 180 bpm. I wasn’t breathing hard at all. Once I reached the car, it was still showing way high. I spun the Mio Link around so the sensor was on the underside of my wrist, thinking maybe sweat and my hairy arm was messing it up. Immediately, the displayed HR dropped to the low 120s from the 160s.

The run was pretty good. I found myself adjusting based on my displayed HR. I think I may go back running based on how I feel and just use the HR data to adjust from run to run or over weeks or something.

 

Saturday, November 8, 2014, 3:18 pm

10 mi, 435 ft gain, 1:20:30. Long way around town + Wallace Falls TH + West city limit, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

The Mio Link worked much better this time. I wore it with the sensor on the underside of my wrist, where it’s not so hairy. It took a little while for my heart rate to go up when I started. I guess that’s good. I tried to keep my heart rate below 150 bpm for the most part. I found myself speeding up, going over a few times. I averaged 142 bpm.

I ran out Gunn rd instead of turning on to US2 right away. That way I didn’t have to run close to highway traffic for so long. The first climb on May Creek rd wasn’t bad. Once I got around closer to Reiter rd, the views of Mt. Persis, and Prospect Peak were beautiful in the setting sun. Then when I made the turn staying on May Creek rd past Reiter rd the sunset was amazing through the trees. There was a lot less traffic on May Creek rd today than last Sunday.

It was starting to get dark by the time I turned onto Ley rd towards Wallace Falls State Park. I pulled out my headlamp for visibility to cars. I pushed it a bit up the hill to the parking lot, topping out around 170 bpm. After a quick pitstop at the restroom, I headed back out.

For the rest of the run, I had consciously make an effort to keep a slower pace. I kept speeding up and saw my HR go above 150 bpm. The main reason I wanted to keep it below was to see what kind of pace it translates to.

I turned west at US2 and ran out to just past the city limits to get a little extra distance to hit 10 mi. It was tough to see the dirt “road” on the north side, parallel to the highway when I turned around facing traffic. With the headlights in my eyes, I had to use both my headlamp and flashlight to dodge potholes and puddles. I managed to keep my feet pretty dry the whole run.

I ran past my driveway almost to the property line, I was still short of 10 mi by a few hundredths of a mile. I enjoyed every minute of today’s run, despite being on roads.

 

Sunday, November 9, 2014, 7:30 pm

4.53 mi, 266 ft gain, 41:33. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Another run in the dark. Achilles/heel a little worse than Friday, but loosened up. It took almost a mile and a half to warm up with regards to the cold.

A few hiccups with the Mio Link. It showed a few spikes in my HR that didn’t make sense. It seems to be pretty sensitive to maintaining contact to the skin, which is tough to get right with the wrist strap. Too tight and it doesn’t read right or constricts blood flow. Too loose and it won’t maintain contact. Average HR was 132. Irregardless of the hiccups, it’s nice to see how my perceived effort and HR compare at an easy pace. Apparently I can go faster and still stay in an aerobic zone.

 

Weekly totals: 36.6 mi, 1740 ft elevation gain