June and July are done, that pretty much leaves one more week and I have completed the first nine weeks of this cycle. Here are the stats:
I am within 4% (actually over) of the schedule, a couple of extra rest days in July and actually some over mileage has kept me within that percentage so it’s not really a true representation of reality, when the plan says run 11 and you run 14 cos’ you’re feeling good, it’s a bit of a false economy. So I need to rein myself in a bit to make sure I don’t over do it too soon.
There are four things that I am really pleased with;
The Variety; as you can see I am really mixing things up with swimming, elliptical, cycling and weights. I have managed to set up a nice routine of running in the morning and going to the gym four days during the week at lunchtime, it makes actually make ‘eating’ lunch a bit tricky but I fit it all in somehow.
The Heart Rate Training; my average running heart rate for June was 143 for July it was 135, that’s an 8bpm drop, but that needs to be reconciled to the increase in speed, June 6.17mph a 9:43 pace and July 7.30mph an 8:13 pace, so in lay terms ( my preference) I am faster for less effort! I am, to be honest shocked at this, I was expecting an improvement but not one so large…but hey I’ll take it!
Weight Training; I was never a gym rat, lifting weights is dull, I found this book on Amazon, it’s really simple, as are the workouts, and they are effective, I have actually been using it for three weeks and can feel myself stronger, having better posture and I can even see some muscle growth! I’ll never bench press my weight but hopefully no one will be kicking sand in my face at the beach!
Weight Loss; I seem to have reached that point of slightly less that natural equilibrium where I am in a deficit and the weight is not s0 much falling off but redistributing, going up a notch on my belt without a large drop in lbs on the scale means I am putting on muscle mass and becoming leaner. Also I am no spring chicken so adding some of that lost muscle due to age is no bad thing.
This week I am having a bit of a rest week and I am, as the title alludes to retesting and reseting my HR zones. I am not sure whether to carry on as I am for another month, basically repeating July through August or whether to introduce some hill work…I am rerunning the original test tomorrow so I will make a decision after that but so far so good.
