Sunday, March 27, 2011

12K - better today!

I'm feeling better. The cold is mostly gone. I woke with a nasty headache though, and it was snowing lightly. Yuck. I decided to go back to bed and walk in the afternoon, as the weather was supposed to be nicer. It was :).

This afternoon it was 46F (8C) and sunny when I left on my walk. Capris and a long-sleeve shirt were just right - too hot at the start, but later the wind picked up and it became overcast, even raining just a bit at the end, and so I was glad I had the long sleeves.

I started off feeling pretty fresh, despite the 6K kickdown yesterday. I was really fast for the first 2K (it IS downhill, but not that steep), with 500m splits of 2:48, 2:57, 2:55, and 3:02, but my heart rate wasn't that high, so I just kept going, figuring it was going to be a good day. For the next 2K I did about 6:20/k, but my legs were getting heavy for some reason, maybe because I was going too fast? I don't know, because my heart rate seemed OK. I just kept on going. Just before 6K I passed the house of one of Calvin's friends, and his mom was outside raking, so I stopped to talk with her for a few minutes. The rest perked me up and I was able to continue at a good clip until 8.3K when I passed her again. Between the first and second time I saw her I decided I should invite their family over for dinner this week, so I stopped to talk to her again...I confess I didn't mind the rest! My legs were tired but when I continued I was able to hold up really well and posted some fast times up the hill - the last 2K had 500m splits of 3:13 (!), 3:22 (OK), 3:16, and 3:19. That's actually pretty fast for me for that 2K, and I was even happier with the total time. I finished in 1:16:20, with ave HR of just 151, and 2.5 minutes faster than on Wednesday for the same workout (and same route). Nice!

Two good workouts in a row. I think my body is recovering from all the insults of this winter. I'm encouraged and hoping for some more improvements this week.

Garmin connect data here.

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