From the monthly archives:

July 2009

Holy Heat and Humidity

by Natalie on July 31, 2009

j0439012Until this past winter I’d never really run in what I consider to be extremely cold temperatures (teens and low 20s and 30s). Most of my running has been in the spring through fall seasons in warmer temperatures and when I was in college in Charleston, SC, I had plenty of runs in hot and humid temperatures. So while I always thought I was a warm weather runner, by the time winter changed into spring this year I had definitely gotten used to cooler weather running. I wondered if I would welcome warmer temperatures the way I used to.

For some reason, this summer in Annapolis has been a slow build to the hot, sticky, humid temperatures we usually experience in July and August. Up until a week ago we had almost no humidity and temps were lingering in the mid-70s, still ideal running weather. All of a sudden though, full summer hit Annapolis with temperatures rising to the high 80s, 90s, and sticky humidity too boot. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I definitely prefer cooler weather running and there is no question that hot weather negatively affects my running performance. [click to continue…]

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A Beepless Run

by Natalie on July 29, 2009

polar_heart_rate_watchFor a while now I’ve been running with my Polar heart rate watch to better gauge the effort I exert during training runs and rides. When I first got the watch I read the manual and went through the set-up process according to the directions. In the manual it stated pretty clearly that the watch would beep whenever I was above or below my target heart rate zone. In the last six months that I have been using the watch I have become slowly tolerant to the beeping. I have had runs where it only beeps for a little bit because I quickly get into and stay in my zone and I’ve had other runs where it beeped the entire time because I was a digit over my heart rate zone. The first time I wore it on a bike ride it also beeped the whole time because I was a couple digits under the heart rate zone.

Once I wore the watch during my interval runs and then it beeped the entire time because my effort in running intervals was significantly higher than during a long or easy run. The difference during that session with my watch beeping the entire time was that I was on a track. With other runners. I was that girl. [click to continue…]

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Interval Awareness

July 27, 2009

Until recently, the last time I ran intervals was during track and field practice in high school. I’ve read plenty of articles about interval runs and there are some great folks on Twitter to learn from whose focus is interval training. The last few weeks of my triathlon training plan have included threshold interval work-outs. [...]

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The Crooked Swim

July 15, 2009

My first open water swim that I would consider as part of my triathlon training was in crystal clear waters in a protected swim area in Jamaica. The second two have been off the beach at Chesapeake Bay Foundation and I hope there are at least two more open water swim practices in my future [...]

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My New Ride: The Bike, The Shoes, The Ride

July 13, 2009

Recently I wrote about the process of buying a new road bike. At the time I had tons of questions. My husband and I were buying road bikes together and it turned out that his bike was delivered to the store a week before mine. I watched as he got an orientation to his bike, [...]

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Breaking Consistency

July 8, 2009

I have been running 9-minute miles for as long as I can remember. Every now and then there is a little variation with my slower time hovering around 9:12 which I usually see on runs of 10 miles or longer and my lower end averages 8:54 on my shorter runs. And for as long as [...]

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An Eye Opening Open Water Swim

July 6, 2009

I am sure that some people who train for triathlons go into the race without having ever done an open water swim. Perhaps they live in a landlocked area and have no access to open water in which to practice. More power to them for taking the plunge for the first time at the race! [...]

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Old Faithful: Gear I Love

July 3, 2009

You can pick almost any category of life and chances are anyone you ask will have their favorite something in that category. Favorite food, color, car, holiday, the list goes on. As a runner and an athlete I have favorite gear and I’m sure you do too. However, I don’t think you just stumble upon [...]

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Running Off Days

July 1, 2009

We all know that rest days are important for any kind of training to be successful and learning to appreciate rest days, I’ve found, requires just as much practice as training itself. This winter when I was marathon training I would often experience various levels of guilt on my off days and I know I [...]

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