Sun & Mon workouts

Sunday: REST day. I did absolutely nothing other than baking for my daughter's birthday party which will be today (Monday).

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Monday: Track workout. 6x800/200 (30 sec rest after 800m, 3 min rest after 200m). I had a bad day today. It started off OK, but by the third set I knew I was in trouble. My legs were a little tired on the first two, but on the third one they got really tired. My muscles felt like Jell-O, especially my quads, and my legs just didn't respond. My heart rate was not as high as usual and I just had no leg speed. My coach pointed out that these things sometimes happen, and everyone has bad days. Yeah, that's true, and I have had some good workouts these past couple of weeks, so I am going to try and move on and not think about this too much. I seriously contemplated quitting after the 3rd one, but I didn't, and I finished the whole workout, so that was good. I just wish I could have some more fast workouts to build my confidence before my races.

Possibly related: Tried again yesterday to donate platelets. My hematocrit was only 35 this time and so they turned me away again; your hematocrit has to be 38 to donate. Hematocrit is packed cell volume, and the fact that mine is low means I have fewer red cells than I ought to. Normal for women is 36-44. 35 is not so good, especially for someone who fancies herself to be an endurance athlete. I have been taking iron supplements (prenatal vitamins, since I have a bunch left from when I was pregnant) for a couple weeks but it's not helping yet. I think I'll make an appointment just to get things checked out.

Times: 4:29, 1:00; 4:30, 1:01; 4:34, 1:03; 4:43, 1:02; 4:43, 1:06 (!); extra rest here 4:42, 1:01. I took the extra rest because I started talking to a guy at the track; he coaches some youth and I mentioned that I might be interested in helping to coach some youth racewalking sometime. Maybe I'm too busy for that...but we'll see. I probably had 6 min rest; not that it helped, because my legs were wasted.

Workout data here.