Saturday, September 29, 2007

McCarthy Volkswagen 10km road race

I can't say this was my first 10km road race, I did the 2005 Gun Run 10km, but this was really cool. I made the intervals easier, for the longer distance, mostly we ran for 1min and walked for 2. I say we, because I have 2 keen training partners, in fact I probably would have waited a bit longer to do a 10km if it wasn't for their encouragement.

So how was it? Well my cellphone alarm failed to wake me at 5:50, in fact I set it wrong, so I was woken up by a call from one of the ladies, wanting to pick me up! So 2 minutes later I was dressed with a sip of milk and my Jungle oats bar in my hand. Out to the car, there we go! I didn't forget anything!!

Got to the sports ground, got my race numbers etc, stretched a bit, we were a little warm from the walk from where we had parked. Then we were off. I'd say the first 3km were the worst, there was a gentle uphill and I was cold. But the rest was quite a breeze, at one point we skipped a running interval, it was a long gentle uphill. But we made it up elsewhere.

The only problem was that I think people were getting a little annoyed, because we kept overtaking the same fast walkers, so we decided to push a little harder to get away from them on the next gentle downhill, which we did, and then it was all good.

Towards the end I didn't tell them but I was adding time to the running intervals and removing from our resting time. We made it back in 1:16:31, although it could have been a little less than that because I forgot to stop my watch as we crossed the line.

All in all it was a great run, we had fun and I didn't feel like I couldn't go on at any point in the race. Obviously as we got to the end of the running intervals I would start to feel it, but after the rest/walk I was all good again. I'm starting to feel really good again!

Week 39 2007 Exercise Log

This week I ran 26km in 3hr27

Monday 24 September 2007
Distance: 6km
Total time: 45:55
Intervals: 65/90
Pace: 7:39 min/km
Average HR: 134 bpm
Energy used: 2299 kJ
Route: Albert

Wednesday 26 September 2007
Distance: 6km
Total time: 43:38
Intervals: 65/90
Pace: 7:16 min/km
Average HR: 132 bpm
Energy used: 2152 kJ
Route: Time Trial Route 

Friday 28 September 2007
Distance: 4km
Total time: 41:49
Intervals: 65/90
Pace: 10:27 min/km
Average HR: 120 bpm
Energy used: 1691 kJ
Route: Mackenzie

Took this one really easy, we walked the whole way, as prep for Saturday

Saturday 29 September 2007
Distance: 10km
Total time: 1:16:31
Intervals: 60/120
Pace: 7:39 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 3848 kJ
Route: McCarthy Volkswagen Classic Marathon Challenge, 10km Road race

Weight: 75kg 

Well I did more than a half marathon this week :P ... in total. And it looks like I might have come in for the 21.1 in under the 3 hour mark! So I really feel like I'm progressing and am on my way to my goal!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

10 km Race on Saturday

I plan on running my first 10km, since 2005, on Saturday. The plan is to run a 6 or 7 tomorrow (Wednesday) and then a 4 on Friday. I will adjust the intervals slightly for the 10km giving myself more of a rest between running intervals. I don't expect to do much better than 1hr20, but the idea is more to get the distance done, not to get a time. Hoping it will go well and be fun.

Week 38 2007 Exercise Log

This week I ran 15km in 1hr51

Monday 17 September 2007
Distance: 6km
Total time: 44:17
Intervals: 65/90
Pace: 7:22 min/km
Average HR: 134 bpm
Energy used: 2223 kJ
Route: Spiral

Wednesday 12 September 2007
Distance: 4km
Total time: 29:39
Intervals: 65/90
Pace: 7:24 min/km
Average HR: 133 bpm
Energy used: 1478 kJ
Route: Nicholson

Friday 14 September 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 37:15
Intervals: 65/90
Pace: 7:27 min/km
Average HR: 134 bpm
Energy used: 1871 kJ
Route: Boys High

Weight: 75kg 

Friday was great! I ran the fastest time for this particular route and it really felt great. This week I am going to be pushing it a little harder, I've already done a 6km yesterday, which felt great even though the weekend was quite tiring, wedding etc.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Spar Ladies Race

I think I mentioned that I did the spar ladies race while I was in Cape Town. I wasn't feeling particularly strong, in fact it had been quite a physical weekend. My family and I moved a whole lot of stuff out of my rental property's garage, so I was pretty sore by the time Sunday came. Also, being away from home I of course didn't really eat right, and I hadn't run since Monday. Anyway I had a very chilled "race". In fact I walked most of the way.

But who said this wasn't supposed to be any fun? Being a ladies race I felt compelled to... well... check it out...

That's me and my mate Dave, before and after. He's agreed to run a half marathon with me when I get fit enough to do it... no getting out of it now Dave!! :P

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Heart Transplant? Pacemaker?

A while ago I asked my cardiologist alternatives to all the medication and the lack of exercise tolerance. We talked briefly about a heart transplant, but this was almost immediately discounted. Firstly to be eligible for a heart transplant I would need to be in advanced heart failure, clearly this is not the case at the moment. If it was (hypothetically) done anyway there could be an improvement in some parts of my quality of life, but I would be trading some known, and well managed, problems for others. As I understand it, transplant patients need to be on anti organ rejection drugs (immunosuppressants), pretty much for the rest of their lives. These can make feel pretty grotty, and susceptible to other infections. So if I were to go into heart failure again, this might be a consideration, but I will try my best to stay healthy and avoid this.

We also discussed the possibility of a pacemaker, my heart rhythm is not normal. This most easily noticed by feeling my pulse, it will be regular for some time and then suddenly speed up for a few beats and then slow down again. If I remember correctly that's not really the problem though. Before I get into the pacemaker story, I'll try explain, again I think, how the heart works, but this time with a little more emphasis on nerve impulses (I'm not a doctor, so I could be getting this all wrong).

The heart has four chambers, two atria and two ventricles. Blood is pulled into the (smaller) atria at the top of the heart and then pumped into the (bigger) ventricles at the bottom of the heart. The ventricles then contract to pump blood all the way around the body. The timing of all these contractions is controlled by a set of nerve pathways around the heart. The heartbeat is generated by a special group of cells, the sinoatrial (SA) node, in the right atrium, this group sends an electrical signal out that contracts the heart muscles, starting with the atria. The signal is passed through nerve pathways down the atrium to the atrioventricular (AV) node, this node passes the signal on to the ventricles. Here comes the clever bit, for the best operation, the atria should be empty before the ventricles contract, so this AV node has a special property. It delays the signal for about 0.1 seconds, this ensures that the atria have contracted and primed the ventricles before they, in turn, beat. 

So what about my heart? Well my atria are beating way too fast, so I guess something went pear-shaped and my SA node is now going ballistic. I have atypical atrial flutter, so according to what I have read my atria could beat at above 340bpm. It is caused by a self sustaining circular neural pathway passing a signal around the heart. My atria are "tired" they don't actually contract anymore (well that is unless they have somehow fixed themselves since my last ECG). Of course a  whole heart beating at that speed would be pretty scary and probably not good for you and would also get "tired", unless you are a humming bird. The AV node fixes this, it only allows a certain number of these beats through every minute. This maximum is where you get your maximum heart rate from (roughly 220 minus your age).  Still my heart beating at 190 bpm all day would still be really uncomfortable, I don't think it ever did actually get to that pace even when I was sick, but I might be wrong. Anyway I have medication (beta blockers) which brings this max down even further, it seems my max heart rate is about 150 bpm. I have no idea why my resting heart rate is about 65.

Anyway, this arrhythmia bothered my cardiologist and we discussed options to fix it. I think I have mentioned my numerous cardioversions and the attempted cardioablation, so I won't say more about those here, except that both treatments failed. So if this rhythm problem becomes dangerous to my health, the only other option is to (if I remember correctly) destroy my AV node (burn it away) and implant a pacemaker which would only stimulate my ventricles. I'm not sure what that will mean for exercise etc, but I assume there is someway for the pacemaker to realise that you need greater cardiac output and speed up the heart rate. So far it's been decided that my heart is still good enough, with my current medication, not to do anything that drastic, so I don't need to worry about running out of battery power just yet, hehehe 

Week 37 2007 exercise log

This week I ran 20.0km in 2hr43

Sunday 9 September 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 47:47
Intervals: N/A
Pace: 9:33 min/km
Average HR: 105 bpm
Energy used: 1302 kJ
Route: Spar Ladies Race

Monday 10 September 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 99:10
Intervals: 60/90
Pace: 7:50 min/km
Average HR: 137 bpm
Energy used: 2056 kJ
Route: Mackenzie

Tuesday 11 September - CANOEING
Distance: 4km
Total time: 37:36
Intervals: N/A
Pace: 9:24 min/km
Average HR: 126 bpm
Energy used: 1700 kJ
Route: Dam wall and back

Wednesday 12 September 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 38:46
Intervals: 60/90
Pace: 7:45 min/km
Average HR: 132 bpm
Energy used: 1876 kJ
Route: Boys High

Friday 14 September 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 37:45
Intervals: 60/90
Pace: 7:33 min/km
Average HR: 133 bpm
Energy used: 1880 kJ
Route: Clarke

Weight: 75kg 

I had hoped to have photo's to post of me at the race on Sunday, but I haven't been able to get them from a friend as yet, they will be posted asap.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Week 36 2007 exercise log

This week I ran 5km in 39mins!

Monday 3 September 2007
Distance: 5km
Total time: 39:31
Intervals: 60/90
Pace: 7:54 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 2022 kJ
Route: Lynwood

 Weight: 74kg

Ok so this week was really really bad! I went to Cape Town on Wednesday and did no running till Sunday, which forms part of week 37 according to my calendar, so technically I only did 5km this week, however there is an explanation. I haven't been back to Cape Town since Easter time and there were many people to see.

I thought I may have run on Friday morning but after my 10yr old boys reunion on Thursday night, which ended up being pretty late, as expected, I was pretty buggered. I did however do a lot of heavy lifting, which is probably not a great idea for me, but I don't really have a choice, I had to move a stack of stuff out of my property in Cape Town. My body is sore!! Anyway, right back to it tomorrow, after a relaxed 5km walk today, I will hopefully get back to my routine this week.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Canoeing?

Before winter I joined a local canoeing club, but canoeing is a lot harder than you might expect. Staying in the boat is quite a challenge for a beginner, especially in a K1 (single man canoe). A K2 is much easier to balance in but my paddling partner was studying for exams like the ENTIRE winter and I'm not very partial to cold water, so I gave it up for winter.

Yesterday, however was a wicked day to start again, weather wise, and the exams were over. So we went out for a little paddle and found that our arms had turned back into useless rubber bands, we went for about 40 minutes and did about 3km. Today I feel like some evil torture master tied me to rack and stretched my arms REAL good.

So should I be canoeing as well? I think if I can maintain both running and canoeing I should have a well rounded exercise program, and I think starting it again after 4 months of running it will be good, at the moment it is less of a cardio workout than a muscle conditioning exercise. It should help strengthen my core muscles, which in turn should help my running. To be able to canoe for cardio is going to take some time, when I stopped in April, I was quite comfy paddling about 4km, hopefully I'll stick to it through summer and be good enough to continue through next winter too. It's always been something I've wanted to be able to do. I'll be canoeing on Tuesdays and Saturdays probably, so I will add those to my exercise stats, probably from next week

Exercise log for August 2007

This month I completed 70.5km in 15 sessions and just under 9hrs of exercise.

Week 31 2007: 2 Sessions - 9.2km 1:11
Week 32 2007: 3 Sessions - 15km 1:53
Week 33 2007: 4 Sessions - 18,2km 2:16
Week 34 2007: 2 Sessions - 10.2km 1:19
Week 35 2007: 4 Session  - 18km 2:19

This is up by over 10km from last month, which is pretty cool, especially considering a relatively unproductive weekend away. I suspect September will be similair, I will try to do some extra, shorter, runs on the in between days.

Week 35 2007 exercise log

This week I ran 18.0km in 2hr19

Sunday 26 August 2007
Distance: 4.3km
Total time: 34:15
Intervals: 60/90
Pace: 7:57 min/km
Average HR: 132 bpm
Energy used: 1687 kJ
Route: Around Manguzi

Tuesday 28 August 2007
Distance: 2.7km
Total time: 21:33
Intervals: 65/95
Pace: 7:29 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 2294 kJ
Route: Time Trial route

Wednesday 29 August 2007

Distance: 6km
Total time: 45:00
Intervals: 65/95
Pace: 7:30 min/km
Average HR: 134 bpm
Energy used: 2257 kJ
Route: Spiral

Friday 31 August 2007

Distance: 5km
Total time: 38:13
Intervals: 70/100
Pace: 7:38 min/km
Average HR: 135 bpm
Energy used: 1951 kJ
Route: Nicholson

 

Weight: Briefly up to 76, but back to 74 by the end of the week