Track workouts are for the birds

Seriously, I was excited about the track workout today because it was promised that we would work on our form, breathing, and foot turnover. We did all of the above, which was great. It turns out that my focus on the position of my body, my arm pumping, and even counting my breaths is spot on. I am even right where I'm supposed to be with regard to foot turnover, taking 176 of the 180 recommended strides per minute. I think that's easily within a margin of error.

However, track workouts stink, because we stopped for 5+ minutes every quarter mile (one lap) to talk more. It got tedious and I got tired standing there. I did learn things (see above) but I would rather have learned first run later.

Anyway, today's stats:
Average pace: 9.55 min/mi (10.15)
Distance: 3.09 mi
Time: 0.30.37 (0.31.39)
Average heart rate: 201 bpm (which I tend to doubt)

After the GTS... Best caption for the face I'm making here wins.

No contest here, I'm clearly trying to squeeze one out.

As far as the heart rate goes, apparently this version of the HRM strap struggles when the band gets sweaty (all the time) or with dry-fit material (also all the time), and for a lot of people it seems to be most buggy right at the start of a run or ride and then balance out. That makes sense, as it would explain the normal average heart rates that I've gotten in the past as well as the weird spikes. It makes sense for today, too, because it was all starts and stops.

Beside the GTS today, in which we saw C from the KSR join the Team (yea! but she's too fast for me), this week I rode my bike twice (KSR and then Thursday's commute to/from school) and ran 4 times (TWRSa). Between that and figuring out that I need to look at calories in and out on a more micro view (daily vs weekly), I was able to lose 4 pounds this week. My body was just waiting for me to figure it out, it seems. So, some (not all yet) excess weight lost, some more progress made on the dissertation, and a bunch of cookies sold makes for a pretty satisfying week.