Thursday, April 21, 2011

15K and feeling fine!

I am so excited about how well my training has been going. I feel like I have been stuck in a horrible rut since the very successful Portland Marathon in Oct 2009. Since then, I've had two foot injuries (sesamoiditis, peroneus longus tendonitis), low iron levels (20 for my serum ferritin), a mystery virus that had me quite ill for 2 months, and a miscarriage. None of this was really under my control at all; my iron levels possibly excepted, but since I didn't know it was low I guess that was unavoidable too.

Thankfully, things seem to be finally going my way. The foot is still somewhat sensitive, but I seem to be managing it well enough. It's just at the "noticing" stage, which means it doesn't hurt at all, but I notice that something is not quite 100% about it. I'll take that! I just concentrate hard on my form, and it seems to keep it pretty well under control for the moment.

I'm thrilled that things are coming together at last. It feels SO GOOD to go for a workout knowing that I am going to do pretty well. I have to say, though, that despite all that I'm still a bit nervous about tomorrow's workout - a 10K fartlek. I haven't done one that long before (only 8K), and it's a hard workout! Still, I am excited to see what comes out.

Have to get to work, so I'd better blog quickly about today's workout. Except for my legs feeling pretty tired (hamstrings, glutes) from about 7K onward, it was a great workout. I was to do 15K, and the first 5K was flying fast. OK, so it's also got a nice downhill :). I got to 5K in 30:39, and my heart rate was in the low-mid 140s most of that time. Granted, my HR did go up after that, and my times slowed down, but it was still great. I got to 10K in 1:01:57 - wow! 2nd 5K split was 31:18! Under 1:02 for an easy day! Amazing! I continued, and I did push a bit on the last 5K to get to 15K in 1:33:36 (for a last 5K split of just 31:39), but that included the gentle uphill home.

Total time 1:33:36 for 6:14/km with ave HR of just 145. Nice!!!

Garmin connect data here.

1 comment:

Nyle said...

Nice workout!! You really are picking up very quickly and its great to see. I think you will be super surprised with the 10km fartlek.