New 2 x 2 Workout Watchless

Wednesday’s run was a watchless one.  At least it was out of sight.  It was a cool Wednesday morning so once I strapped on my Heart Rate Monitor, I threw on my long sleeve short to cover my watch and dug out my GYMBOSS.  After running a few slower runs these past couple weeks giving me time to recover from Rome, I was more than excited to kick some butt!  I have run with a heart rate monitor in the past, but have never based my training solely on my heart rate.  It’s certainly been a humbling experience so far!

The first week running at a cap of 140 beats per minute definitely tested my ego.  I was SLOW!  What I learned from this was:

1. I was still fatigued from our trip which was anything but relaxing.  We were on the go almost 90% of the time and we saw a ton of Italy.  It was definitely worth it but exhausting.  I am still trying to decide if running 26.2 miles was more tiring or hiking Cinque Terre, walking the entire city of Florence, or flying international with very little sleep?
2. I need to put my ego aside and trust this process.  Over time I will see the number of miles I run in 60 minutes increase as I continue to recover fully from my marathon and also trust, not all runs need to be fast, or at a 9 minute pace (which is usually what I run my long runs at).

I set my timer on my GYMBOSS to go off every 2 minutes.  After a few minutes of warm up exercises…(“shame on you if you’re not doing a warm up!”), I started out with a 10 minute slow jog not worrying about my pace.  Once I heard the beep from my trusty GYMBOSS, I took off!  I ran the next two minute a bit slower than my 10K race pace but still at a pretty good clip.  The instructions said to run your fast part of the interval at 2 minutes faster per minute than your easy run pace.…(aka, 10K pace).  Your Easy Run pace is the pace you run at when your able to keep your Heart Rate at 140.  For some that may be a 10 minute mile or less, and for others it may be a 13 minute mile or more.

To be honest, it depends on the day.  “Did you sleep well the night before?  What did you have to eat…good, bad, or otherwise?  How about your activity level…busier than usual?  I could go on and on, but somedays you’re going to feel it and other days, not so much”.  After 2 minutes of running hard, you run easy again to let your heart rate come back down to 140.  Probably a slow jog and for some maybe even a walk.  After two minutes, you get to run hard again.  Yeah!  You repeat this 8 times.

This is one of the funnest workouts I have done.  The best part is you’ll feel liked you kicked some butt but you won’t feel like you need to crawl back in bed or take a nap latter in the day.  It’s hard but not too hard.  I am so pumped to discover how much faster my 2 minute intervals will get as I start to recover more from my marathon and enjoy more easier runs at a cap of 140 Heart Rate.

Sometimes running without knowing your pace but running simply by effort is a good change of pace.  If you are hooked on your garmin/paces/mileage/splits/everything… go without a watch every now and then.  Or at least don’t make it invisible.

No GYMBOSS, try this….. Run fast until you reach the next stop sign/tree/mailbox/whatever you think looks good and than jog.  Don’t start running fast again until you feel completely recovered.  Run fast again until you reach your next tree or sign.  PLEASE don’t run so hard the two minutes feels like you’re going to die.  Have fun!  Relax!  And most importantly, leave your watch out of sight.  Start your watch at the start of your run, stop it at the finish, check your stats.  HAVE FUN!  I did.

Have you ever tried Heart Rate Training?