Judy, nice run with Fast Buddy! Someday we need to drag you to an FE and all of us run with you.

Julie, good sore is good. Glad the HR recovery bodes well! Also, one thing that not everyone mentions is quality of life as well as length. I would far rather live a little less time and be able to walk, climb stairs, stand for a while, etc. than live longer but be bedridden due to muscle wasting or gasping for breath because I smoked all my life.

Lisa-Marie, sorry about the battery. DH is a keeper. And I agree, walking just seems so pokey when one is used to running!

Camille, please define "late spring", what months? Late April through May? And that may be a gamble for cool weather within easy drive of Atlanta. NC probably has some good ones but flat may not be an option. Florida is flat but cool is unlikely.

Laura, yay for a tempo run. What are the temps, 50s?

Damaris, ouch on the allergy shots, that sounds painful.

Marjorie, is late March "late spring"? Not sure. Easter is March 31st this year and I doubt anyplace is going to schedule a race with road closures on Easter Sunday morning for fear of the wrath of the local churches, when is Snickers?

Hi Carolyn!

Karen, poor baby Jake with the cone. Unless you have access to a track doing 400 repeats sounds like a TM workout to me.

Susan, ugh on the broken pool heater. Swimming in the Gulf would probably be warmer! Snickering about you finishing off the Ben and Jerry's whilst watching BL.

Linda, very good point on "if I stop it will take twice as long to get home". There are good reasons for loop routes, incentive to keep running being one of them!

DD, she of the waist-length, wrist-thick braid, went back to college yesterday. It may take the entire semester to unclog the shower drain in that bathroom. And DS with his shoulder length curly mop adds to the problem on a regular basis.

4.3 this morning with neighbour and her DH. Her DH peeled off when we turned around, he wanted to do more mileage. She did a full on Sunday so is taking it easy today. And get this -- she ran the full at the last minute, when a friend of hers couldn't do the race and offered her the bib. She BQed and can't use it because she was running with someone else's bib on. And the person whose bib it was has already qualified. Talk about karma coming back to bite you in the butt! Now she has to try to repeat the time in a race she actually paid for.

Happy runs!

JulieD, to answer your question from yesterday, BQ-10 and BQ-20 would be BQ minus 10 and BQ minus 20. So if your BQ time is 3:50, then BQ-10 would be 3:40 and BQ-20 would be 3:30. Someone with a time of 3:30 or faster, or the equivalent for those with other qualifying times, would get to register first. After a set time period (I think it's a week, to give all those whose feet are faster than their computers time to register) then the BQ-10 group gets to register. Another week or so. Then it's open to all those who have met their time for another registration period.

Note, however, that this is not "first to register are in automatically". Once the third registration period is over, then all those who applied are ranked by qualifying time within their age/gender group. If there is more demand for slots than there are spaces open, which is usually going to be the case, then those who just barely qualified do not get in. The spot goes to a faster person even though she may have signed up later than the barely qualified person did.

It's reasonably fair, more so than two years ago when Boston filled in seven hours and there were so many server problems that a lot of runners who had very fast qualifying times didn't get in, especially those who were at work and couldn't get online to register.

But if your BQ time is 3:50 and your race time was 3:49:10, to pull an example out of the air, you are going to be in for a miserable wait until they confirm your entry, and there's a good chance you may not get in because your time was just barely good enough to get you into the registration system. And they have to confirm everyone's entry using records for the race(s) in which you qualified. Some races are not certified Boston qualifying courses -- Hatfield-McCoy, for instance. Even if Karen wins the race in 3:10 she wouldn't be able to use that as a BQ entry.

Hope that helps...although it may be more confusing! And this is how I understand the system to work. Others feel free to chime in/correct, please.

 

Julie, enjoy the strength training workout later.  I've always seen that HR recovery number and never thought about it.  If it gets lower it means you're getting healthier, right?

  

Demaris.... Yes, Heart Rate recovery is a significant indicator of overall fitness.  There are charts and graphs about how quickly your heart rate should recover after near maximum effort.  My heart rate recovers about 40 to 42 beats in the first minute after strong exertion. Here's the basic way to check your recovery rate:

____________________________________________________________________

How to measure your recovery heartrate and what it means: 
1. Accelerate your heartrate through running, biking, or other method to an anerobic level (a pace you can do for only 20-30 seconds... such as a full sprint) 
2. Measure the heart rate with a monitor at the end of the sprint. 
3. Recover for 60 seconds by walking or biking slowly (do not stop moving!) 
4. Measure the heart rate after 60 seconds and subtract that number from the peak. 

Your Findings: 
POOR less than 12 Beats Per Minute (BPM) recovery 
FAIR 12-20 
Good 20-30 
Excellent 30-40 
Over 40 is outstanding. 
The recovery rate is important because this is a measure of the soundness of our cardiovascular system and not just our heart health. 

A recovery rate of greater than 35 BPM indicates almost no risk of sudden death from heart disease!  

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(I SOOO love reading that last sentence)

Jules

Julie, thanks for the information.  Mine is between 30-40 but I'll take the actual number tomorrow.

Carol-MCM is an experience, not a race. Truly an EVENT.  I'm glad that it was my slowest marathon; means I took the time to enjoy it. Reading the signs and checking out the different groups of runners (even those inspired by their fallen dogs).  Karen has the logistics down well so you'd do well to accept her offer while she's still there.  Wonderful hostess too.

Camille-you look like your racing.  nice job! Dances with Dirt is in Florida in February. trail race but flat.

Linda-I've used "faster you run, sooner your done" as a mantra many times.  of course both faster and sooner are relative terms.

Damaris-nice lineup!!

Went to gym this morning but cut on back of my ankle opened up and started bleeding.  Opted to do 11 miles on bike instead.

While dd was at basketball practice I did run 6 outside this afternoon though.  Confirmed my suspicisions that runnign outside in early morning would not be good.  Lots of icey patches and in the dark they would be horrible.  We're at that slow melt stage with temps in mid 30's during the day and 20's at night so everything gets glazed.

Back to TM in the morning.

Julie:  Thanks for that info.  That is exactly what i wanted to know!