I Am Surprising Myself Here

So the new HR monitor showed up and after fighting with it and trying to get it to work for about 3 days (yes, I know I could have read the directions in the first place, but really, who does that?)I began my training with the monitor. Now I just want to remind you it has been 4 months since I trained with a HR monitor and also about 4 months since I have done anything on a bike besides teach spin, so I knew the first couple of weeks in January would be a doozy!

You already know the deal for Monday, on Tuesday, I got on the bike for a 1:10 Z1 ride, and let me tell you, by 45 minutes, I was done for. It was taking so much energy and resistance to get my HR up to Z1 in the first place, that maintaining it was killing me! But I suffered through it and was done for the day at around 9:00am, with a sore ass and lead legs.

Today, I got up early again, as I am trying to make that the trend for the year, and hit the gym for my first run with the HR monitor. Now, I thought that this was going to be reminiscent of my walk with a hop routine from last year, but I didn't want to go in with a negative attitude. So I took the "whatever happens, happens" view and began my run. I thought I was on track and doing well in terms of my HR and I got off after 40 minutes averaging 10:15 miles. Now for you speed demons out there, I know you are probably wondering why I can't run faster than that, but I can, don't be fooled, just not with that monitor on. So when I got home to log my time, I was nicely surprised, my average HR was only 154 which is the at the bottom of Z1. This means that I may actually begin the year with a Z1 pace of 10:00 minute miles or maybe even less! Unheard of, I tell you!

After my run, I got in the pool for a quick 30 minutes steady swim. And even though my arms were a bit sore from Monday's swim, I was again very happy to be back in the water, well more so underwater and away from noise.

Tomorrow I do a HR test, which means that these happy posts will most likely disappear when my Zones get adjusted and I have to go back to my crawling pace, but today I can bask in feeling satisfied with my morning.