I met with Sasha and Daniel at 6:00 this morning and we went out for an easy 10.1 with Daniel turning around after 4 miles. Sasha and I went to the end of the trail and back to finish our run in 1:15:18. The faster portion of our run came at a couple different time periods as Sasha wanted to see how well I could sing while running at a faster pace. To put this all into context, yesterday while we were talking the subject of singing came up. Sasha asked me how well I could sing and I told him that I was probably good enough to sing a solo in church, but not as good as my younger sister who is an amazing singer. Well, due to this conversation Sasha decided that he wanted to test and see how well I could sing while running. First we ran a 600 in 2:03 (5:28 pace) and I sang the star spangled banner while we ran. This was followed by Sasha singing the song while we ran about 8:00 pace with Daniel acting as judge to determine if my singing was better at 5:28 pace then Sasha's was at 8:00 (he determined that mine was still better). I then sang the song again while we ran at 8:00 pace. Later on we sped up so that I could get home in time and while running close to 6:00 pace we decided to sing the song one more time at that speed to see what the difference was between singing at that speed and the other speeds. We then finished our run speeding up over the last 400-800 meters or so (I counted 600 but I wasn't really paying attention so I don't know). As far as analyzing my singing goes and relating it to my overall fitness I have to say that I am doing well. I noticed that while singing at 6:00 pace was harder then at 8:00 pace, the difference was not all that remarkable, which tells me that my heart does not have to work much harder at the faster pace then it does at the slower pace. However, at 5:28 pace it was rather difficult to sing and the difference between that speed and 6:00 pace was a big one. So, this tells me that my heart starts to work much harder at these speeds, but that my overall fitness is good enough to keep the stress on my heart down to the point that I can go for somewhat extended periods of time without breathing. Maybe I will try this test out again in a few months and see if it becomes easier to sing at sub 5:30 pace or faster.
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