unbelievably slow...but at least I could work out!

I felt better this morning. OK, I'm still coughing, and I do feel tired, but it's LIGHT YEARS better than the last 2 days. I was just dying to get out for a racewalk, and a big snowstorm is headed our way, so I thought I'd better do it this morning or I'd be stuck inside on the dreadmill or indoor track.

I was supposed to do a 5K fartlek. I knew that was out of the question - it would have provoked the biggest coughing fit ever, I'm sure. I figured I could manage an easy 10K. Well, OK, so I really knew I could manage an easy 5K, but I wanted to do 10K, even if it wasn't smart. So I did do 10K, and yeah, it was the slowest I've done 10K in a long, long time. I looked at my watch in disbelief and was almost laughing at the splits. I knew right away that I was slow, even though I felt OK, because my first downhill split was 6:35. Normally I'd do a 6:15-6:20 on my first 1K towards Liberty Park, but not today. It got worse from there...many were 7:00+ including one 7:40 (uphill, gently). By 7K I was really tired but I was determined to finish all 10K, and I'm not sorry I did. I did cough quite a bit when I was done, though. Total time 1:11:17 for 7:07/km with ave HR 146. Yeah, definitely sick. Garmin data here.

After that I still felt good and managed to go to Weight Watchers (weight 150.6; I'm about back to where I was before vacation), pick up the kids from my parents' house (they had them overnight, thankfully), help my parents drop their car off for repairs, and do several errands, including picking up my bib for the Cold Turkey 6K race on Thursday (Thanksgiving, for my international readers) and purchasing some pepper spray and a new blinky red light to help keep me safe on my early morning walks. It's quite dark when I work out, and I used to take my dogs with me, but they can no longer keep up :(, hence the pepper spray. The blinky light is because my old one is starting to go off, and it's a cheapie w/o a replaceable battery. I like to be safe with a reflective vest and the light to really help the cars see me in plenty of time.

I'm now pretty tired so think a short nap is in order before tackling the rest of the day's projects, including a piano student in a couple hours.