finally, the first run of the year for me

About time. Got in 7x hills at the Ford Dam. The footing was poor in the snow but we were fairly protected from the wind. Although it took me 7 days into the year to get in a run, it was a nice one.

--Mark

HR monitoring revisited

I had a few months off last winter due to a surgery. Shortly after getting back to working out, I ran into trouble during a cycle class which I figured out was due to severe dehydration. My chart of my heart rate below shows how it dropped like a rock (see chart below) and then recovered somewhat about 5 minutes later. As this was happening, it was helpful to see what my HR was. As Londell posted in a response to my post this morning, sometimes it's a good thing to have a HR monitor on just to keep an eye on things.

my training wheels are gone - no HR monitors

Last month I lost the transmitter for my Garmin heart rate monitor. Over the weekend I lost the strap for my Polar heart rate monitor. The Garmin strap with Polar transmitter don't play well together. Therefore, I'm exercising without at HR monitor, which is new to me since I've been using one for about 5 years.

I'll take this as an opportunity to exercise more by 'feel' instead of using the HR monitor as a guide/limiter in training and in races. There is more risk in that I may crash and burn in races but I may also do better running by feel. Time will tell.

--Mark