On happiness and running

Yesterday I had one those days where everything just feels right.  I woke up and weighed myself to find I was losing weight.  I did some jumping jacks and some strength training and went to work wearing new shoes.  There's just something about shoes with a little height that make me happy.  I've been wearing flats so much I forgot about this effect.  Are tall people happier than short people?  Or is it just a nice change of scenery for a day?  I was even working on something interesting at work.

I came home happy and started to make dinner.  Then my mother called and threw a wrench in the works.  She is really not liking the idea of having the wedding at her farm.  So, this made me really depressed last night.  One wedding venue has already fallen through and now my own mother doesn't want me to get married at her house?  Usually we get along like two crazy peas in a pod, but throw a wedding in and we might as well be different vegetables.  Ian was such a sweetheart, he put on a romantic movie for me after dinner.  We also discovered that he can tolerate them while drinking.  Have a beer, sweetie, we're watching a romance tonight!  It was a good try to cheer me up, but the inevitable wedding at the end just set me off again.

So, I didn't sleep much last night worrying and my alarm goes off at 6:30.  "Get on your feet, get up and make it happen!"  Shut up, Gloria Estefan.  Really, really did not feel like running.  Somehow, I managed though.  I got up and found the song that was currently in my head, played it to wake up and slowly gathered my running gear scattered throughout the apartment.

It was cold, something around 40 degrees but my under armour shirt served me well.  I wore my Rock N Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon shirt over it, like a badge of honor.  The run was six miles of paved trail through woods.  I played music the whole time, no audiobook today.  I needed quiet in my mind to work out all my troubles and pump me up. 

After the marathon I looked back over my workouts since I got my heart rate monitor(HRM) and discovered my maximum heart rate is higher than I thought.  Also, my resting heart rate is a little lower now.  So, I had to adjust my zones and they are higher now.  So, I decided to run the first mile at the new endurance threshold, the second mile at a pace that is comfortable for me and alternate.  That way, I could see how fast I could actually run at that threshold without wearing myself out.

Here's the splits by mile - pace - average heart rate:
1 - 8:27 - 152
2 - 10:30 - 147
3 - 8:47 - 155
4 - 10:26 - 99
5 - 8:51 - 125
6 - 8:38 - 91
7 - 9:18 - 74 (this was only .2 miles)

Notice something weird?  Yeah, me too.  I was climbing hills and breathing hard in mile 4 and the stupid thing was reading 99 bpm?  If the HRM was at least being consistent with itself, it should be reading around 147 like in the second mile.  It has done this once before, so now there's a pattern and I need to call Garmin about it.  Look at mile 6!  I'd have to be superman to do 8:38 and my heart rate is only 91.

Overall, it was a great run.  6.2 miles in 58:26.  I'm happy.  Wait, actually I am happy!  Somewhere during that run, I relaxed, enjoyed the fall weather and forgot to be worried about my wedding.  It'll work out, right?  There's always Vegas...

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