Running dreams... Mile 218 of 458

[liralen]

... while using the elliptical at the Rec. Center I often find myself daydreaming what it'd be like to be an old Ranger finally following the one who carries a broken sword into the final battles. Old, with kids and grandkids at home, joints not what they used to be, and all these youngsters showing up and doing stupid things. Fading into the forest, a wolf on two feet, and killing again to clean out the land's infestations of the twisted creations of evil. That long, miles eating lope, up mountains, following crooked streams, along pleasant farmers' fields, and seeing the Hobbits at first as children, then as a bit more wood-wise than most, and then as people themselves powerful, capable, and courageous.

I like daydreaming of running through the woods with a lot of other Rangers, all silent, all deadly. The feeling of picking up old skills again, after having laid them down for a deceptive peace, knowing that I had all the more than I had to protect, to lay my life down to keep safe. That was fun to explore.

It was odd, yesterday, finding that a 30 minute elliptical run set at level 4 on the Cardiovascular Workout setting (i.e. up a sharp peak of effort and then back down again) only got my heart rate up to the 120 range. I'm going to have to up the difficulty if I'm going to get a real CV workout, I guess.

Comments

[foomf.livejournal.com]

So, have you age-adjusted your target range? Or do you agree with the medical community's assertions about what those should be?

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hm. Useful CV workout for me plus or minus a decade is still in the 150 pulse range, medically approved according to a chart on the wall, and what I think is a better workout for me.

[tanais.livejournal.com]

If you are only getting up in the 120 region it could be that your ticker is doing just fine and doesn't need to work too hard! When I started I was 15 stone -- that was a lot of weight to pull around and my heart was up in the 155 region at 8hm/h. 10 or so weeks later I am 13.5 stone (my target is 12 by December), and I am a lot more in tone already so I look a lot lighter already, my heart is in the 133 region during a 5K run at 13-13.5Km/h. Less weight, heart is better exercised, actually thinking about what I need to eat etc... (mentioned on my LJ ad-nauseum)

I love running on the treadmill. Quality thinking time. Those inner dialogues are very important because I believe it's part of the deeper self reaching out to the higher self outside of dreamtime -- "hey bud, this is repetitive, you can take a back seat for a while, I have something I want to say..."

I had a wonderful daydream the other day which concerned a deer guide following me, egging me on. "You're not running away from anything anymore, you're running towards something..." and that caused me to sprint a little and end my 5K with more of a sense of triumphalism rather than ache. Those daydreams (and I have many) are essential for me, its my body having a dialogue, thanking me for using it a bit more thoughtfully other than just as a movable shell for my brain, ears and mouth.

I wished I had discovered exercise 10 years ago but I'm there now. At 39 I'd say I found it just in time... Its formed the basis for other internal changes.

BTW if it gets to be a bit too easy rather than upping the speed or using preset programmes can you increase the running angle? A matter of a few degrees can really put the pressure on and it exercises leg muscles in a different way -- I try and vary everything so the body doesn't get stuck in a pattern...

x
tanais

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's good time.

Even when I used to play soccer all the time, three times a week. 90 minutes of sprint and jog, sprint and jog, I'd be thinking while the body and reflexes took over and did what they'd were best off doing. Campaign thoughts, ideas and feelings, mulling over the everday stuff and dealing with it emotionally. It's good time. I love exercise. I love how it's so much easier to be in motion once I've gotten there. I think it's why getting back into shape has brought back all the feelings of an old warrior getting back old skills.

Yes. I can up the difficulty/load, just hit the next level or two up from the level 4 workouts I'm doing. I'm burning about 200 kcal a thirty minute session, so that's always to the good, and if I can burn more all the better. I find that if I keep challanging my heart during my workouts then my resting rates keep dropping nicely. Let the ticker really rest when its rest time instead of laboring just to keep up... I agree about the variation, which is why I like the steady climb in difficulty and then the gradual drop. I kind of like the routine of that a bit better than the random pattern of difficulties, and it's not like the body can just drop into a singular rhythm doing the steady up and down, but my brain can. So that's nice.

Just commenting that it was probably time to up it again.

Started out with just 100 kcal workouts, right after the pregnancy, and they felt so hard. Now 200 kcal aerobic workouts aren't even making me breathless at 5000 ft, that's when I figure that I should probably up the ante.