A Passion for Running

Welcome to the home of Mark aka The Running Blogfather – a 40 year-old dad, husband and marathon runner who’s beaten injury and is on the comeback trail!

paranoia will destroy ya!

passion for running category: running on Tuesday, September 28 2004

So, my latest bit of paranoia is that I might be over trained…

You see, I’ve been really achy lately and my legs are feeling very heavy. I’ve also been paying attention to my resting heart rate which has been a bit high. Seems like lately I can’t get it under 50 bpm. That’s compared to when it was around 45 prior to my last marathon.

There are many things that can affect heart rate. One of them is being over trained. So, I started to worry about that particular possibility before eliminating the others.

This morning I found my brain and started thinking about the other factors and realized one of them stuck out. Hydration level. I started thinking about my drinking habits and decided they have not been great as of late.

So, I did a little test. First, I took my resting heart rate shortly after my morning cup of coffee. It was 50. Then, I started drinking water. I drank a liter of water. Two hours later, I checked it again and guess what? It went down all the way to 42 bpm and the bonus was that my leg soreness was gone too!

It’s obvious I’m not over trained and even more obvious I need to hydrate better.

Duh Mark! Drink water ya’ big dummy!

Today’s Run
I did 30 minutes of drills today and wore my heart rate monitor while doing them. I did 10 sets of high-knees and 10 sets of leaping/bounding. Each set consisted of 30 steps – 15 on each leg and I took a couple minutes of jogging rest between each set. I was amazed at how quick and high my heart rate shot up doing those. By the end of each set, it was between 80 and 85% of max.




5 Comments

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Comment by Susan

Wednesday September 29, 2004 @

Isn’t what the lack of water in our systems will do crazy? I am never thirsty and I have to FORCE myself to drink. Somehow, it is never enough. Glad you figured it out!

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Comment by Jon in Michigan

Wednesday September 29, 2004 @

LOL! Uh, oh! Taper madness has begun to grip Mark already. :) Please be aware that monitoring your heart rate and being anxious about why it is not going down, will actually raise your heart rate.

Ofcourse having low fluid levels would require a higher heart rate to deliver the same level of O2 into your tissues. But don’t think about that.

Just drink your water and be calm. You have a week and a half to go. Relax. :)

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Comment by Dianna (RCOH)

Wednesday September 29, 2004 @

See – it’s not just me! Taper-brain (as hollie so aptly named it) affects even the Blogfather. Phew. Now I don’t feel quite so neurotic…I’m in good company.

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Comment by Lafe

Wednesday September 29, 2004 @

Now that’s what I call a resting heart rate. You were upset with 50 bpm?! Great googly moogly! You thought that was high!?

I’m not even gonna share my resting heart rate. Hah!

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Comment by Mark

Wednesday September 29, 2004 @

Thanks Lafe. Well, I guess it is all relative huh? I remember when I started measuring over a year ago, my resting heart rate was about 55. That was after a couple years of training for marathons so I imagine it was around 60 or 70 before that. Anyway, last year I watched it come down from 55 to 45 (maybe lower). A low Resting hr in and of itself is not a sign of fitness but when you lower your OWN rhr, it IS a sign YOU have become more fit so this makes me very happy! :)

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