last 3 days

Thursday: Rest day. I'm trying to make sure I take one in hopes it will speed my recovery.

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Friday: I was going to do weights at the gym and didn't feel like changing from outdoor wear to indoor wear, so I did 5k on the treadmill in 32:56. Not bad, as my HR was about 150 at most. That particular brand of treadmill seems to run a bit faster than some of the other ones at the gym; however, I did 5K last weeks sometime at the same pace and HR was up to 160, so this is a bit better. After the 5K, I switched to the elliptical and did 1.5 miles on that.

Then weight training: supersets of 1) abductor machine (#9)/bench press w/30lb dumbbells each arm; 2) hamstring machine (60 lb)/lat pull-down (70 lb); 3) calf raises, one-legged, body weight/lateral raises (10lb each arm); 4) tricep dips on assisted machine (70 lb)/sissy squats. Then core: sit-ups passing 8 lb medicine ball to Lisa (not sure of #, to fatigue), oblique crunches on ball (20 each side), back extensions on ball (20), ball passes from feet to hands (15).

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Today: I decided to do 10K outside. The weather was nice for this time of year; 33F (1C) and partly cloudy. Despite the fact that it was 33F, there were a few icy spots on the roads, but not enough to slow me appreciably.

I decided that because I'm feeling a little bit more energetic lately that I'm going to gradually increase my mileage so that I can do a half marathon in April. I might be slow, but at least I will be out there doing it. I was slow today, and knew it after the first km downhill was around 6:45 or so. I spent about the first 5K mourning the fact that I was slow and thinking of all the stuff I can't do unless I get better, but then I realized this was stupid and unproductive. So for the last 5K, I planned all the things that I can still do this year even if I'm slow. I can still do distance stuff locally to my heart's content, and there are lots of nice races. I haven't given up on feeling better and doing the World Masters, but if I don't get better, it's not really worth dragging myself and my family there for it. And because I need to have goals, well, for the moment I'm going to think about doing some longer distances at nice easy paces, since I think I can at least do that much.

With that in mind, I plan to do 12K next weekend, and 15K the following weekend, with corresponding increases in weekly mileage so that at least I'm doing SOMETHING productive. If I feel lousy at any point, I'll back off. It's not worth sacrificing my recovery for!

So, I finished the 10K today in 1:10:45 with ave HR 143. About par for the course lately, at 7:04/km. I'll take it - it was nice to be out there, and beats the heck out of last year, when I was injured and didn't know how long I'd be out of commission.

Garmin connect data here.