Happy Hanukkah!

Best wishes for warm and joyous Hanukkah celebrations! Prior to this evening's fried potato pancakes and merriment, I went for a 13 mile run through the soaked city of SF with J (We ran through medium rain, mist, cloudiness, some sun, some piercing rain, light rain, and more medium rain. And, yes, our feet got soaked!).

Driving back home, I thought of some awesome running-related gifts....

1) a shiny marathon PR :)

2) analysis of my running form

3) personal training for upper body/core strength

4) new running clothes, socks, and shoes

5) fresh pasta & new flavors of gels and Nuun hydration tablets

6) massage

7) spa/sauna

8) pedicure

Graphing and analyzing

Here's my heart rate data from today's run...Generally, I should run my general endurance/easy-medium runs in the 132-142 bpm zone. Uphill running works your heart differently, so up to 153 is alright. Today's run involved a long, gradual uphill to Piedmont Avenue, and then a nice downhill back home. And it seems that my heart rate really evens out in the high 130s toward the end of the run (picture perfect, in my humble opinion!). I'm not completely sure how this heart rate data is helping me, but I've got a bit of extra time on my hands and am taking advantage of Garmalade's diverse functions!!

Streak

I'm on a 4-day running streak, and my legs are feeling good. I usually don't run more than 3 days in a row, but I might run till Thursday....It's nice that ALL my runs are easy runs right now, so there's no pressure to hit any speeds or even specific distances.

Today's run was on one of my favorite routes around North Berkeley, and I'm glad I wore my running pants, hat, and gloves!!

Chill

The Bay Area is experiencing a cold spell, and I ran in this afternoon's low-40s weather. The Lake Merritt run was calming and the cool air and puffy pockets of clouds were invigorating. Keeping warm was great motivation to run at a decent pace :>

I'm trying to run a bit higher mileage for the next two weeks because I'm not sure how much running will happen out east, especially since I'm a bit wimpy about running when there's snow/ice on the ground!

Ten

I thoroughly enjoyed running 10 miles to Berkeley and back with J. It had been awhile since J and I had run long together, and it made the time fly by :> The weather was cool and gray, but my legs and body were pleased to be out on a Saturday morning to do the long run routine. There's a few more weeks of unstructured running before serious training begins for the Avenue of the Giants marathon, and I'd like to experiment with heart rate training, a couple new routes, and maybe some extra stretching.

Last but not least, a HUGE congratulations to a fellow Bay Area blogger who qualified for the Boston Marathon today!

Heart to heart

I'm trying to use my Garmalade's heart rate monitor. So, I calculated my maximum heart rate (around 189 beats per minute) based on a formula from Runners World. And then I determined my endurance heart rate zone (123-142).

And, on today's run, I averaged 139 bpm. Pretty neat, eh?!?! It was cool to see how my heart rate went up *a lot* on big ole hills AND how my rate went way down while running downhills or jogging. But there are still things to figure out, since the monitor's band is not that comfortable (fits by the bottom band of my sports bra) and I'm not completely sure what my precise maximum rate is....