MORE ON HEART RATE AND HILLS....

I finally have some quantifiable proof of my improved fitness!

Last October, while training for a fall half marathon, I made note of my heart rate activity during a half-hour hill workout. I blogged about it back then, and pointed out that my heart rate seemed to recover quickly on the downhill portion of each hill interval. That was exciting news.

Earlier this week, I repeated this same workout on the same hill in exactly the same manner. I was pleased with how I felt during the workout, but I'm even more pleased to see my HR data improve a bit. Compare the final triad of numbers with the final triad from a few months ago. Here is this week's data:

Here is last fall's data:



My HR numbers are clearly lower towards the end of the recent workout, which to me indicates improved fitness. I'd like to see this improvement translate into an improved performance in an actual race. We'll see.