I had my semi-annual checkup with my doctor yesterday. I am probably in the best shape of my life right now. I have been running. I ran 24 miles over the last week, 32 miles the week before that, and am scheduled for 40 miles this week. I run wearing a heart rate monitor, so I am in the aerobic zone for long periods of time every week. And I have been doing martial arts classes 5 days a week in addition to the running. I have been eating low fat healthy food. Since my last visit, I lost 20 pounds. I am lowering my body fat percentage. Like I said, I am probably in the best shape of my life.
But when the nurse took my blood pressure, it was high. A little later the doctor came in, and took it, it was still high. He had me relax, and took it again. And it was still high. My weight loss and all the aerobic exercise didn’t make a bit of difference!
I have been taking a low dosage of hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) for a few years or more. Now the doctor is prescribing a low dosage of Lisinopril. So I will be taking both drugs now. He wants me to take blood pressure readings over the next month, and fax them to him. I hate taking drugs! I rarely take Tylenol. I take Ibuprofen occasionally, but more as an anti-inflammatory, when I injure myself while training.
Grumble! This sucks!
I first saw a listing for the Damn Wakely Dam Ultra event months ago when I was looking around for races in New York. The run is around 32 miles through the Adirondacks! I have never run an ultramarathon. Actually, I attempted a fat ass 50k, but DNF’d. I only ran a little over 15 miles. It was on New Years eve, and was freezing cold. I decided at that point that running in the freezing cold sucks! But I had run the Las Vegas Marathon less than a month earlier, and I don’t think I had recovered enough. Anyway, I have been wanting to run an ultramarathon.
I have been waiting for the general registration to open for the Damn Wakely Dam Ultra event. It opened first for people who ran it in previous years. And it opened a few days ago for general registration. Unforunatly, they have so many people signed up for it already, that now I am registering to be on a waiting list. I mailed it off today. According to the registration info, they get a lot of drop outs close to the event. So hopefully I will get in. Meanwhile, I am currently training for the Buffalo marathon. Speaking of which, I need to run 3 more miles on my treadmill!
I was scheduled to run 3 miles on the treadmill last night. So when I got home from work, I changed into my running shorts, strapped on my heart monitor, and jumped on the treadmill. I started off slow, walking about 4 mph (15:00 minute/mile pace). I would bump the speed up about a 10th of a mph every 30 or 60 seconds. I began jogging around 4.3mph. I continued to up the speed until at one point I was running at 6mph (10:00 minute/nmile pace). I was trying to keep my heart rate below 145bpm. I could actually run much faster, but thats not my training. My training strategy is to run as fast as I can, and keep my heart rate under 145. I want to stay in the aerobic zone, and build my aerobic speed as per Phil Maffetone.
I didn’t stay at 6mph for very long, and soon bumped it down to 5.8mph. I stayed here for a little, but then bumped it down to 5.6mph. I think by the end I may gotten down to about 5.5mph. I managed to run the 3 miles, and average an 11:00 minute/mile pace even with the slower pace at the beginning of the run. This was pretty good for me. Like I said, I can actually run much faster, but that would take me into the anaerobic zone. That is not what I want. I want to improve my aerobic speed, the speed that I can run while staying aerobic. And I am getting faster!