Monday, November 29, 2010

Back On The Saddle (+ Awesome Watch Letdown)

As I mentioned before, I've been seriously slacking off on exercise. There wasn't much I could do about it, especially last week when I was sick, but I still feel guilty. I finally feel better from that dumb bug I had last week (wow, I guess resting IS a good thing!) so I went out for a run today. I've only run twice in the past 2 weeks, and both times were really weak. I was looking forward to a solid run today-I planned on doing the shorter version of my regular route. It's only about 20 minutes long or so, but I thought I should ease back in after so much time lying in bed. 
Sadly, the run was pretty sucky. I was feeling wheezy and tired really soon into it. I pushed through and ran past the mile marker before stopping for a little speed-walking break. I started running again and then took one more of these little speed-walking breaks before running the rest of the way home. When I got home, I was seriously wheezing--I had to use an inhaler for the first time in forever. Also, I was sneezing like crazy, so some of the wheeziness might have been caused by allergies I guess. The run was 23 minutes long total, including my walking breaks. 
Perhaps part of the reason for my struggle during the run was low morale--I got this awesome new watch but I don't think it works! It's supposed to track speed/distance/heart rate/etc. and I don't think it does so accurately. My first suspicion came when I was setting my resting heart rate. I sometimes check my RHR by checking my pulse for a minute, and in the past couple of days it's been hovering around 68. When I checked my RHR with the watch, first it said 81, then when I checked it immediately again, 71. 
Also, I used map my run to figure out how far my current route is, and then drove the route with the trip odometer on to see if it matched. According to both of those, my route is just over 2 miles. According to my watch, the route was less than a mile and a half. What! So you can imagine my mood when I looked at the distance I had run at about the 1.25 mile mark and the watch said .7. I was like WHAT?? and immediately stopped for my first walking break. I think that it measures via pedometer without taking into account that a running stride is bigger than a walking stride. I'll try to mess with it and see if I can get it to be more accurate, otherwise it's going back to the store. 
Thankfully, I have a 5K coming up (quickly!) to motivate me to continue running. I'm sure it will get easier pretty quickly if I stick with it. My body just has to get used to being active again! 

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