I Might Be Out of Shape

I started my last working day of this week with a peanut butter protein shake. It was tasty and creamy, but could have used a touch less milk because I like my shakes and smoothies thick. In the brand-new blender went:

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

1 small banana

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 cup skim milk

After work, it was still light out and fairly warm, so I thought I'd take my Garmin on its first outdoor run. I wore my blinking red light, reflector bands and a new headlamp my parents gave me for Christmas.

And it all went to hell. I set out to complete five miles, and that quickly was scaled back to three miles. I completed a 5K in just more than a half an hour, which isn't a terrible time. It's a far cry from just a few months ago when I was able to crank out the same distance in 25 minutes.

What concerns me more is how I felt. My overall pace was 9:35, but the exertion I felt was meant I felt like I was running much harder. Indeed, my heart rate was an average of 170 beats per minute, or 92 percent of my max. Eek!

My last outdoor run was Black Friday, and since mid-November, I've been working out indoors using the Insanity workout program. I thought this was getting me in pretty great shape as I don't sweat nearly as much when running as I do when finishing up a cardio circuit in Insanity.

The heart rate, however, doesn't lie. While Insanity might be a good workout to make me physically fit, it's not doing any favors for my running and maybe even my heart. Lesson learned: weather permitting, I'll be hitting the pavement more often.