Part 1: The Lurgy
I was never one for worrying about health - that is, while in my fluid and flexible 20s to early 40s. Then the knees went, the arthritis kicked in, and the perimenopause joined the party. I could still jump on a trampoline and turn a front and back somersault until a few years ago, or dive stylishly headfirst off a 5m board. Maybe that was last year? The year before?
There is something insidious about arthritis. It creeps up on you. I get irritated with my poor mother for not standing up straight. My grandfather was foetal-like at his end, it was an awful lingering finish to life, and seeing her being reeled in by the same forces, and feeling those forces within myself, I become the parent and tell her to stand up straight, look ahead. Of course she wants to look at the ground - her knees don’t lift her feet high enough to avoid small obstacles, and it hurts to pull her shoulders back and straighten her spine. But there isn’t a choice here, you just have to resist.
I’m still upright, but the gymnast training that has made me quite blasé and confident about my ability to roll out of trouble falling off horses, skis, boulders, is overridden by this creeping stiffness. I mean, I have to be careful getting out the car some days, it feels like my hip will dislocate.
A few months ago I took quite a nasty fall, one of those unexpected slips that you can’t prepare for, and yelped out loud at the “crack” as my neck whiplashed back. My brain felt like it had been properly rattled, and I felt sick and dizzy for a few days, and odd for a few weeks. I think I’m ok now, but my neck is still stiff and I continue to land heavy. I just can’t bend the knees and tuck my head in, and all the other things I did unconsciously, and now I feel my brain taking an impact too.
I’m in bed now with a cold, gifted by my son. The usual medley of symptoms, but with added dizziness which I am convinced is related to the above mentioned brain rattling. With dizziness comes nausea, for me.
So I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself, and there will be no running today…
Part 2: the Run
I got fed up feeling ill, and my son feeling ill. I gave him a choice: yoga or walk. He chose yoga, which would never happen usually, so he is definitely sub-par. We found a 30m beginner routine for flexibility on YouTube. It didn’t feel very beginnery. Son was a bit floppy and kept falling over. He enjoyed child pose. I cracked like popping corn as I slowly unfurled, and trembled in warrior pose. But we got through it, and I held his toes in my toes as we relaxed on our respective mats at the end.
Later on I thought, sod it. Let’s run. I have new shoes to be worn. I had been googling whether it’s ok to run with a cold, and the consensus seems to be that if it’s neck up, you are good to go and might well feel better for it.
I logged into Nike Run Club for the first time in years as I fancied having some company. Coach Bennett is still there, doing his thing. I downloaded ‘First Long Run’, a 35 minuter, not anticipating running for that long. And off I trotted in my neon Altras.
I stayed close to home, like a pony on a long lunge rein doing little circuits with my house at the centre. I really thought I might need to duck out and didn’t want to have a long walk back to creature comforts. But actually, I felt fine the whole way. My right knee was a little stiff, but not terrible, and a little numbness in my left foot set in after about 20m (despite the wide toe box), but the lungs were good and I ran an easy 5k in the usual sort of time with a slightly lower average HR than usual. Go figure.
Part 3: Heart Rate
On that note!!! As you know, in my fantasies, the pinnacle of running for me is ‘zen running’. In this longed for state where all is harmony and balance, heart rates don’t matter, but if you were to check, it would probably be in the 60-70% of her max HR, aka Zone 2. She doesn’t care, of course.
My reality is that however hard I manipulate the maximum HR, I am in Zone 2 on an easy walk, and zone 3 on a brisk walk. Which is annoying, because all over the internet there are LOTS of people saying these easy runs are the best to ‘illicit a recovery response, increase aerobic capacity, and increase fatty acid usage’. I want that! But apparently I am doomed to remain in the ‘dreaded plateau of Zone 3’, or the ‘grey zone.’ Actually, I tend to skip straight past zone 3 into zone 4. I was in zone 5 today for a minute on a run that felt easy.
It. doesn’t. make. sense.
Anyway, I read an article the other day titled ‘3 reasons you need to ditch heart rate training’ and it’s singing my song. The reasons are: there are so many variables affecting your HR; they are based on an average, and not everyone is average, AND beginner runners aren’t fit enough to do the graded exercise tests to give a more accurate personalised reading; HR monitors are often inaccurate.
This coach said he would recommend developing a more ‘fine-tuned internal sense of effort and pace’.
Which is what this fantasy goddess of mine does anyway.
P.S. For those of you blessed with (ahem) average hearts, you crack on, you lucky things.
P.P.S. If you are wondering about the images, the hummingbird heart pumps at 1200 bpm, the blue whale at 2bpm.
P.P.S. So let’s not say average, let’s call you ‘whaleheart’.
P.P.P.S. I think the run helped!
An enjoyable 2nd 10K and a new route 
FAQ POST…..IS MY HEART RATE TOO HIGH?
