Be Still My Heart

So Frances got me a heart rate monitor (HRM) for Christmas. (I guess she wants me to get into better shape!) It's a nifty gadget, which I've now had the opportunity to try out a few times. It records your heart rate as you work out (for me, mostly running, although I wore it for a weights work out, too), and then reviews your average HR, calories burned (based on the weight that you enter), etc.

The first run I wore it, on reaching the top of Capitol Hill on the return leg of the run, the HRM indicated that my HR spiked at about 225 bpm, which would be about 30 bpm above my estimated maximum HR. This frightened me, of course, because I think that that should have killed me? But today, same place, HR only went up to 175 bpm. So better.

I'm keeping a comprehensive training log this year, so from time to time will update you all on my training. My training year always starts on a Monday, so I'm almost at the end of the first week of Training Year 2009. So far, almost 29 miles down (28.6 miles is the estimated ttd). Average pace slightly faster than 9 mpm. Not a great pace, but fair for training purposes.