Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Returning to running (and wiggly lines)

Having returned to regular running the Sunday before last and been rather alarmed by the degree to which my cardiovascular fitness had dimished, I was curious to find out how long it'd take for my heart rate during exercise to return to something sensible rather than the insane averages I was seeing in the high 180s - my heart usually works fast, but these readings were getting ridiculous.

After less than two weeks, I was therefore pleased to see something of an improvement, as the wiggly lines on this graph (courtesy of my nerdy Polar S625X heart rate / SD monitor) indicate:

Sure, the heart rate (that's the top red line) is a little scary, especially when looked at by more experienced runners than myself, but that's an improvement of about 10bpm on the same (somewhat hilly) route a week earlier, when I also ran significantly slower. So that's a reasonably healthy pace and already a beginning of a return to reasonable cardiovascular condition after only about a week and a half, which I tested with my first long run in months yesterday - only 20km, but it went well enough to give me some more confidence.

Let's just hope that the fitness keeps building up as the three races (that's two marathons and a 10-miler) I have entered in October get closer, eh? If they go well, I might decide I've got no alternative but to start fantasising about entering Comrades.

Posted by mpk at August 21, 2005 6:05 PM