I've Been Trying To Get Down, To The Heart Of The Matter......

Thanks Don! Got three good workouts in this week....a long run of an hour and thirty three minutes on monday, a very hard 8K run on wednesday, where I included 4 bye 4 minutes with two minute recoveries, followed bye a final 8 minute tempo interval, and today, a 9K run with 20 minutes of alternating one minute intervals at faster than 5K race pace. The three runs have all gone well, but my damn heart rate showed that I am probably pushing a bit too hard. It is training, not racing. My heart rate on the last of the four minute intervals reached 150 BPM which is about 95.5% of max heart rate for me. A rate of 146 should be my high in any interval work, and an optimal heart rate for tempo intervals should top out at around 142. During today's 20 minutes of one minute alternating intervals, my max heart rate was 155. That is also way too high. The max my heart rate should average for the long run is 127, and even though it felt painfully slow, it was a hot day and ended up averaging 131. So, I have to utilize a bit more restraint in my running paces, and try to run a bit longer and with just a bit less intensity. Gotta stick around to take care of Debbers, so I can't stroke out!
Decided to race again on sunday the 27th. There is a 5K race at NMSU on that date to support their symphony orchestra. There doesn't seem to be a lot of races from then on until my July 3rd race, unless I want to go to El Paso, and I really don't. Also, after meeting with Deb's new fibro doc on thursday, we agreed to get Deb in 6 weeks of PT for her back with my good buddy Mark who helped me with my knee two years ago. This new doc is replacing all of her meds over time, and removing as much of the oxycontin as possible, and replacing it with low dose anti seizure medicine, low dose hormone therapy, and Ti Chi after the PT. His wife has had fibro about as long as deb, and he keeps up on the current research and has been published himself. So I will be a PT hubby for six weeks and do my running around the college. Hope this all works and we can get Deb at least back to how she was in Mesquite when she exercised at the pool almost every day. We shall see.......wish us both luck!