So it could be considered a bit boring as there was no phone juggling or treadmill acrobatics this time, but my last run of week 3 [the 4th one due to a two week break for the dodgy knee] went so well.
I remain convinced that Laura fibs about that last minut,,e which always seems at least twice that but the amazing thing was I did it without exhaustion with controlled breathing and as there were still a few minutes left on my treadmill I added another 90 sec run "Just for Fun!".
Anyone who knows me will realise how astonishing that is.
On Wednesday after the second 3 minute run my heart rate reached a scary 176 but tonight it peaked at 168, I am really starting to feel a difference.
Roll on week 4.
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Gnet
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If you're sneaking in an extra run, you're already infected with runner's derangia. Good to hear it. But it's also good that you're bailing out when the ticker starts flogging along at 176. I'm not sure what the "speed limit" is, but I would guess that it's somewhere there and thereabouts. (You seem to know, so I'm sort of restating what you said, really).
I have heard that past a certain heart rate, the heart is not capable of managing to deliver any more oxygen to the tissues, and you're basically deep inside the overtraining zone. Actually from what I've read, even pushing it to 168 is pushing yourself really hard, too. It might be an idea to be slightly more patient. If you let it, your heart will manage to deliver the same amount, and then more oxygen, at much lower pulse rates than that. If hitting 168 was just a blip due to a momentary inattentiveness, you can ignore the aforegoing, of course.
When it comes to the pulse rates, I'm relying on fairly rusty old memories, so if you're up to speed with the latest on what the various rates imply, please share. It's always good to learn a bit more about these things. What my memory tells me is that 176 is over the body's "VNE", and that 168 is well above a nice cruise. (Velocity not to exceed, I think - a flight simulator term -- or an aviation term for people who've flown machines instead of simulators. The metaphor is not entirely out of place, because at the extremes of achievable heart rate, you're going to get messed up by turbulence, more than anything else, I suspect, and it's turbulence that makes planes fall out of the sky at their VNE -- or simulated turbulence and simulated planes, anyway).
Hey! I'm losing the bliss here! You sneaked in an extra run! You feel good! That's the most important thing.
The trainer at the gym didn't weem worried when my heart rate was up in the high 160s for a short time on intervals of the cross trainer so I am pretty sure that as it only reached that at the end of the running interval it will be ok. But the 176 did worry me as that seemed too high. The fact that the same amount of exercise resulted in a less scary heart rate has reassured me that my fitness is improving,.
Who knows what it was in weeks one and two when it wasn't measured and I felt much worse..
Scary to think. And the meaning of the figures keeps changing. I guess your trainer would know what's an alarm bell, and what's not.
And yes, of course, a drop of that magnitude in heart effort to achieve the same result is an indicator of increasing fitness. Quite a bit increase, I would imagine.
I must go and read up a bit, and update what I know about that.
Anyway, now you've started sneaking in extra runs, you should also start going just slightly before Laura says go for it, and you should slow down for a few seconds after you've been given permission to collapse. Physically that's just a token, but psychologically it's a bit like choosing a new attitude. Make your legs say "we want more, please", even if they would really like to say "can we please go home now?"
To quote gary_bart, I too also have been seriously infected with 'runner's derangia'! I am just behind you - just going to run W3 run 3 tomorrow!
Well done you too for getting this far - I am also totally a novice too and have never done such a thing in my life before! my husband texted me the other day calling me 'his little runner' - high praise indeed!
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I've just finished week 5 
Week 5 run 3 done💪💪
Week 3 Run 1
week 3 and 4
Week 3 Done! (But not sure about 4)
Week 5 run 3 
