‘Fessing Up Is Good For the Sole

Once again, it’s time to confess our running sins. Gather around while I divulge three of my latest transgressions and unburden my soul. Thank you to Marcia’s Healthy Slice for providing this monthly Runfessional.

Runfession #1 – Yeowch!

I wrote in an earlier post about an exceptionally tough trail race Hubs and I did in March. What I didn’t write about in my race report was the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) we both suffered afterward.

Even though this race was less than seven miles long – it was advertised as a 10k, but was actually closer to 11k – I had a full-blown case of DOMS. I felt like I had run a hilly marathon.

It hurt to bend over to pick something up from the floor. It hurt to walk down the steps (I had to turn sideways to descend). Most of all, it hurt to lower myself to sit down on the toilet (TMI?).

I hobbled around for three or four days after the race. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt to run. I did a short recovery road run the day after the race and felt great. By Tuesday, I was back on the trails.

Runfession #2 – Heart Rate 246?

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I had not been running with my trail buddies in almost a month. Snow and ice made the trails difficult to navigate for much of February and early March.

By mid-March, my friend Al and I decided to do some road-running together. We set out from our local rec center one cold morning to run for an hour or so.

Al is a big believer in heart rate running. His goal that morning was to keep his heart rate in a certain (low) range for the majority of our run. I sometimes check my heart rate during a run, mostly to reassure myself that even if the run may feel hard, my heart rate is low. Usually, I don’t look at my watch at all.

For my age, the estimated heart rate range for moderate to vigorous exercise is 110 – 140 beats per minute. Al’s is approximately the same.

At one point in the run, Al told me he wanted to slow down. His heart rate was 145 bpm. He asked me what mine was. I glanced at my watch and told him my heart rate was 143 bpm. This reading confused me since I felt like we were running at a very easy pace. I certainly didn’t feel as though I was at or above the very top of my range.

We slowed down.

About a mile later Al checked his watch and informed me his heart rate was down to 125. I looked down at my watch and read my heart rate as an incredible 246!

“That’s Impossible!” I said. “My heart would be beating right out of my chest.” I showed Al my watch.

“Laurie,” Al replied, “you are reading the mileage. Your heart rate is 113.“

Oh. Whew!

Runfession #3 – Goals Are Evil

At the beginning of this year, I set a goal of running 1500 miles in 2021.

Now I don’t want to.

If you break it down, 1500 miles is 30 miles/week, more or less. There will probably be a few weeks when I don’t run 30 miles due to illness, injury, or (hopefully) travel.

I now feel obligated to get 30 miles in each week. Sigh.

Do I have your permission to stop?

Checking my running log each week, factoring in the times when I will be running with others (so, not in charge of determining the mileage), accounting for races, and calculating how I can reach 30 has left me stressed and anxious.

As I write this post, I have run 318 miles in 10 weeks. 31.8 miles per week, not much of a cushion.

I think I may jettison the whole goal-mileage-for-the-year thing. If I do, however, I have no objectives for the year. No upcoming races that scare me, no long runs to accomplish, no big plans to work toward.

As you can probably tell, I am deeply ambivalent.

What to do, what to do?

I may have to reconsider.

Thank you for sharing my Runfessions. I am cleaner, lighter, and grateful for the chance to confess my running sins. See you again in April for my next Runfession.

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