Getting Fitter

I hit an important beginning runners’ milestone yesterday: I had my first 30 minute run without walking or stopping. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is the first time I have run for 30 continuous minutes since my foot surgery this past February. Which is ironic, since I had a 5Km race at the end of September which I ran one minute faster than the year before, in 33:22 – but with three one minute walk breaks. Slowly but surely I am reaching my endurance goal of being able to run for two hours straight!

Almost as important as the time I spent on my feet yesterday is how low my heart rate stayed throughout. I have a maximum heart rate of about 195 beats per minute, which means 80% of my max is about 156 beats per minute and 60% of my max is about 117 beats per minute. As I am training to increase my endurance and burn fat, I really should be keeping my heart rate below 156 most of the time. Unfortunately, as a sign of how out of shape I was, I found it really difficult to keep my heart rate below 160 on even the slowest jog. Which is why I am excited that during yesterday’s run I had no trouble keeping my heart rate around 156 up until the last 3 or 4 minutes, and that it dipped down to 145 beats per minute a couple of times. This is a clear sign that I am getting fitter and that my heart is getting stronger.

Of course it also means I’ll have to work harder to burn the same number of calories, but that’s why I am gradually increasing the amount of time I run each week and changing my gym routine every 4 weeks. Unfortunately there really is no way around it: when it comes to fitness, just when it gets easier is when you need to make it harder - you have to constantly challenge your body to progress. In other words, no pain, no gain!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1675.28	102.0g	198.3g	51.3g	0	22.13g
	24%	47%	28%
Calories burned through exercise:		451

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's orange, mango and passionfruit juice	200mL
09:30	Black Tea	500mL
10:15	Easy run, 30 minutes
11:00	Lemon-Lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
11:30	Total Greek yoghurt	125g
	Sainsbury's frozen mixed blueberries and strawberries	100g
	Sponser vanilla Recovery Shake	20g (1 scoop)
	mixed with skim milk	150mL
12:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
14:15	New Covent Garden Pea and Ham Soup	300g
	Genius brown bread	1 slice
	with Sun Pat Peanut butter	16g
	and Honey	7g
	Spinach	25g
	Raw tomato	85g
	Kraft Light Honey Mustard dressing	10g
15:00	Green Tea	250mL
19:30	Home-made fish pie	300g
	Steamed beets	100g
21:30	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	20g
22:00	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.