I hope none of you were candidates for gum grafting because I feel my daily rants about my procedure would definitely scare you off! I’ll keep this brief, but the Dr. is not concerned with my missing gum graft spot. “Not concerned” in the sense that it’s not a sign of total failure or it doesn’t affect the functionality of it all, but it’s more of a aesthetic kind of thing. I still have some gum in that spot, it’s just higher than the others, especially the “new” grafted area. (FYI, the skin was grafted across the tops of 3 teeth, and the other spots look just fine) However, after the heeling process (6 to 8 weeks), if I’m not happy with the results, they can come up with a game plan to take care of it. I’m guessing that means another graft. As you can imagine, the prospect of that has me super excited! (not) So, right now, just treat the graft really nice, and we’ll see what we end up with. I guess that’s good (no emergency situation), but at the same time really sucks (uggh, why the heck did it fall off after I went through all of that pain?). He did mention that typically it’s around 70% success rate. I guess I just got super lucky with my graft 2 years ago, whereas this time it’s completely opposite!
Enough about that! Exciting thing that happened today: I ran this morning!
Even though it was nice outside I stayed inside and watched my new favorite show, The Royals. I’ve got 5 episodes to watch! It’s saucy TV at it’s finest.
My run was pretty good. I wanted to go 6 miles, and quickly realized that I should have gotten up 15 mins earlier than I did. It’s amazing how much a little 15 mins will throw off the daily schedule. So it ended up being a progressive run, going faster each 1/2 mile. Apparently the first few miles were pretty slow because by the time I got done, I was cranking out 7:30 min miles (my typical speed on the treadmill is around 9:30 if I’m not doing speedwork) and the over all run was 1 hr exactly (so, 10 min miles). All that hard work at the end didn’t seem so exciting after I read that 🙂 I was still a bit sore, especially in new places (my chest & arms) from my workout yesterday so I had to take it slow. It is amazing how much a mere 15 mins will throw off the daily schedule!!
I also ran with my heart rate strap today to get an idea of how my HR was doing. I know some people who train solely on HR level and I think that is an interesting concept. However, the straps often cause chafing for me, so I’m not sure I could always to that. My resting heart rate is around 56-60 bpm, and on this run my treadmill said I was up at 190 at the end! That number seemed like my heart would explode (although it certainly didn’t feel like – because I definitely would have stopped running immediately if I thought there was an issue!!).
Calculating my HR zones needs a bit more information to get a truer picture, but it does give me some guidelines using a calculator like this one:
http://www.digifit.com/heartratezones/training-zones.asp?MaxHR=175&Age=47&RHR=60
It seems that taking my HR to 190 may be overtraining! But still, you just have to push it sometimes. There are many many articles about training using HR, but for now I’m just going to try to keep better track of mine during some key runs and see how it feels.
Another good article for beginners is this one:
http://www.runnersworld.com/beginners/why-my-heart-rate-monitor-reading-above-my-max-heart-rate
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Q: Have you ever done any training based on your HR? If so, how did it feel?
Q: What TV show are you really into right now?
I hear The Bachelorette will be starting tonight. I’m going to record it, but I think the concept is a bit odd, so we’ll see if I really devote all of that time to watching it!
🙁 That sucks about the graft!!! So sorry!!!! Please keep me posted on how it does, I hope that you don’t have to go through that again!!!!!! I tell you, the dentist is one person I have a phobia against!!! A simply cleaning and examination makes me so anxious!!! I usually end up with a headache from stressing myself out!!! I just know the dentist will find something!!! Stresses me out!!! The sound of the drills! Hands in your mouth!!! Numbing the mouthing! UGH!!!
I too think the heart rate training is interesting! I haven’t gotten to wear I actually monitor my heart rate during a run, but often get curious about it because I hear so many talk about it! It seems like a “smart” way to train, but honestly, I just want to run! I like to keep up with my pace and distance, but much more than that and I think my brain will just be tired! But, again, the smart way of things is probably to train by heart rate….. hmmmm, maybe I will reconsider and try!
Have a great DAY!!!!!!!!!
So all of this dental procedure talk must be making you cringe for sure!! Sorry about that! I have a low tolerance to pain, but this has certainly increased what I am able to stand. Kinda like marathon training. haha!
HR training – It seems like a lot of the runs should be slower, which sounds good, but then it would take me more time, and I’d have to wake up even earlier… trade offs!
You have me really interested in this heart rate training….. I think I will look into it further. Of course, that is when I am released to go back to running…. boo hoo… not running sucks! oh well!
Yes, dental work makes me cringe. Just walking into the dentist office gives me anxiety!!! I truly have a phobia!
Have a great night
Someday I’m going to make you watch a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica!
Never!!!
Eeeee your mouth skin graft sounds sooo intense! Hopefully you don’t have to do it again!! Haha I absolutely agree about 15 mins totally being able to throw off the schedule. I am loving being on holiday at the moment and being able to just run as much as I please (within reason 😉 ) without worrying about time constraints! 7.30min miles is awesome! That sounds like an intense run! I am a big fan of starting off super slow to get warmed up so I would see that as a good thing even if it affected your overall pace. Or you could always mentally chop off the first two miles, count it as a warm up, and then calculate the pace of the rest if you wanted to be nifty 😉
I have never done heart rate training but I got a monitor with my garmin so I really should learn to use it!
Jessica @ kiwiyogirunner recently posted…The one where running saved my life
I think if I would have had this same terrible experience on the gum graft two years ago I would not have had this one done! ugggh. Today my mouth is just achy, feels like I need to brush my teeth. So annoying to say the least.
I think the HR training takes more discipline (or maybe just paying attention), so maybe not for me? haha