The Art Of Running Slowly

Well, I'm complete wuss. After my previous post I didn't run for the rest of the week due to bad weather, low temperatures and complete I-can't-be-bothered-ness. So, as the next week rolled around I decided to do something about and go to the gym. Yes, I know - the gym. So I went, I struggled to do 1.5 miles on the treadmill, did some weights, then some cardio work on the exercise bike and cross/elliptical trainer thingy. Both of these are fancy units (as you would expect in any self-respecting gym) with heart rate monitors and the like. Both had my heart rate at a fairly high reading, but when I tried to slow down on the cross-trainer (to bring my heart rate down to what it wanted it to be) it would promptly tell me I was going too slow - I couldn't win. However it did get me thinking about my heart rate and performance, so after a spot of browsing I settled on a Garmin Forerunner 50 with Heart Rate Monitor from Amazon (what would we do without them?). I also bought myself a second unit, but this time with the Footpod as it was cheaper than buying either set with additional HRM or Footpod. On a related note the accessories mentioned above - and the GSC10 Cadence Sensor for bikes - for the Forerunner 50 are compatible with the latest Forerunner 405, so when the time comes I can just buy the watch by itself. I'll review the items in another post (promise), but suffice to say that I'm very happy with them. Amazingly I actually read the manual first, then went off to measure my resting heart rate (after a 20 minute lie down - hard life, eh?) which came in at 61. Using an online calculator, I worked out my Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) to be 181 (although I've exceeded this is subsequent sessions, and another way of working it out gave me 186 so who knows!), and the same calculator gave me my 'cardio zone' as 150-163. I set these levels in the watch and set off to the gym... ...where now matter how I tried, my heart rate consistently stayed above my upper limit. Oh, and I still couldn't run too far - I only just just managed 1.5 miles again, but my pace was 9:20, and I did walk/jog and extra half-mile to warm up/cool down. I read some more, and went to the gym again (that was four times in seven days, because I had another session while waiting for the watch to be delivered). This time I concentrated on my pace instead of my heart rate, and did 3.15 miles at an average pace of 11:07. The only reason I did 3.15 miles was because the gym was closing - I could have gone a lot further! Another rest day, then another run. This time I ventured outside again in the bitter, bitter cold and did 2.46 miles at a pace of 10:10, and again felt I could have gone further. Much happier! I've done some more reading (and annoyingly missed a run, but I've kept up other exercise in the interim) and have now happily discarded the idea of the 'zones' and so I'm just going to concentrate on my pace and distance from now on.