9.28.08

An unexpected day. I need to eat now, but I'll update soon

Okay well we were having everyone over from church today to our house for lunch around 1. I was planning on running maybe at 5 ish so I'd be done by 7. Well we got to church and everything went fine, then we got ready to go and April's car wouldn't start. It turned over but wouldn't start, so yes all you smart people out there, we tried jumping it, but the same result. Wouldn't start. I even pumped the gas while turning it over (and it had 3/4 tank). I thought maybe it was because April had parked on this incline. Other cars were on it too, but I just thought maybe it was the reason. So we put er in neutral and turned it sideways so it would be level. Still nothing. So we conceded and just had some church peeps help us park it - which wasn't hard to steer because no power steering.

Anyway luckily we saw a couple who was going to our house and hitched a ride home with them. We still had to put food in the oven and all the host things y'know so it was kind of stressful. The day went well and it was actually funny because after eating and everything we had deep discussions about economy, technology, and all this stuff. Two of the guys were computer engineers, so y'know how that goes - i.e. they were pretty darn smart, but I got a few words in of my own accord.

So anyway after all that it was like 3:45-4 and I was just too tired. Set the alarm for 5 and took a nap. Of course I overslept till 6:45. I don't know if I turned off the alarm, or just didn't set it right because I was tired. either way it was already done. So April had taken a nap too and I woke up because she woke up. She wanted to check on her car, I wanted to run. I had told her she could drive my car to work tomorrow and we would go try to get the other car tomorrow night since no Auto places are open on Sunday anyway. Apparently she didn't care about that and decided to get her dad and go look at it. All this time I wanted to run and just deal with the whole thing tomorrow.

I'm not sure if that is right, but I didn't see the point of going out there for no reason, possibly having to have it towed anyway, and then having it sit outside an Auto shop until tomorrow. So by the time I was done running it was 8:30 and they were getting back. The car started apparently, but I don't know if it was BEFORE or after they put gas in it. Apparently it just needed to level out, but still the incline had a million other cars, so obviously something was wrong. Her dad thinks it's the fuel pump. How much does that cost you say? $800-1000 for our car. How much does the car cost you say? $2000-2200. You do the math on that.

So I don't know if it we will get it fixed for half what the entire car cost, or just sell it and cut our losses and buy another used car that will need $1000 part in two years.

Okay so that was a GREAT day. But what about running. Well Since I didn't have time for a long run I decided to just go ahead and do the HR test today, then long run tomorrow. Seemed like a good enough plan. Since April had my car I couldn't go to the track so I just had to guesstimate a 200meter stretch, and an 800 meter stretch. I had one planned out right by our house, but there was a 4-way stop halfway, which usually there are no cars stopped at.

So I do my warm up and jog and get my muscles ready for abuse. Take my time and do my form drills, or at least what I would call form drills, I still need to perfect the drills themselves. So after about 10 minutes I was ready and set my HR monitor and my ipod and took off down the straightaway. About halfway down I see a car stop at the stop sign. It's fine I'm not even close to it and they'll be gone by the time I get up there. BUT they don't move. They just sit there. NOW I don't know if they are going or stopping, so I can't run through the intersection - It's a neighborhood intersection with 15 mph speed limit by the way, not a real road --. So at the last second I veer off to the right and head down the next road, which is slightly uphill. So I'm chucking up this incline at near top speed, pretty mad at the zombie mode car and I'm feeling like I'm working hard. (breathing hard, legs burning, gasping for air, etc.) I check my HR monitor and it says 178 top. ?? ok. I figure it was a fluke no way it could be that low.

But I've only got two minutes recovery, so I ignore it and move on. 800 coming up next. I have no CLUE how long that is, but again I can guesstimate. So I figure I'll use my ipod and just do .5 miles and use that as a guide. This is all fine and well until you actually have to look at your ipod, while running at top speed, and while holding your ipod and trying to make out tiny little numbers while your bouncing around on pavement. So needless to say the 800 consisted of 2 full 360 turnarounds (because of the cul-de-sacs) and I really didn't feel like it was incredibly my fastest speed. Although my legs were really shot from the 200... Max HR was 183 for that, so I was working maybe a little harder, but the first part was back down the slight incline, and there were two turnarounds, so who knows.

BAh. . . But it was good just to try it I suppose.I still haven't analzyed what a 183 max HR is. If that's good or bad I have no clue. I think I want to redo the test is what I think! And that I will, but not till next week. For now I've moved everything up a day so I can still get a long run in before it's too late. I really think that the long run is an integral part of my training, and pushing it back or skipping just isnt an option. So Monday -long, Wed/Fri- slightly harder days, and then my schedule will be back to normal with Saturday as a rest day. Should be fine I just wont' have two rest days before my long run.

OKay WHAT A DAY, but it's in the books, and SORRY for the book I wrote. I also went for about 5-6 miles after my "test". Talk to you all tomorrow.

Form Drills
max HR test 1 - at home. Side street past house up incline. Then down incline normal loop ending past house.
200-178
800-183

7:17pm, home, 78?? degrees.
50:40, bf 538