Pilates, 12K, random ranting

I did Pilates last night with Lisa (yeah, I dragged her into the class...she liked it!). I think I'm getting a bit better at it. It is still challenging, though, and a good workout. I'm not sure how much it's helping my racewalking, but it's not hurting it, I don't think, and the coach wants me doing it, so it's good.

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This morning the weather was lousy. But not so lousy I couldn't go outside. It was 33F (1C) and lightly snowing. Blech. That might be OK in January or February, but c'mon, it's April and I'm sick of it. Yeah, I know that spring in Utah = snow on a regular basis, but I don't have to like it. And this spring has been wetter and more annoying than usual.

My legs felt leaden this morning. Really. from 6-12K it just hurt to be out. Add to that some GI distress, and well, it wasn't a very comfortable walk. However, I did well enough. I wasn't fast, but my HR was lower today, so seems like I'm making some progress. Total time for the walk was 1:17:45 for 6:28/km with ave HR of 146. At least it's done. I hope my legs recover a bit so that I can do speedwork well tomorrow. I guess if I'm slow, I'm slow.

Garmin connect data here.

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Speaking of slow...I really hate the time period in training where I'm ramping up again. It stinks. Everything hurts all the time, and I'm walking slow and just don't feel good mentally. There's no excitement from having a really fast workout, and it's just a slog. I know it's only temporary, but it's hard to get through these 2 months or so until I'm in better shape. It's mentally tough. When I got home this morning I told Loren "I'm SO done with racewalking." I didn't mean it at all, but you get the idea. It's just hard to get out there day after day and work your behind off and feel like you're just barely moving in the right direction.

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More random ranting: the government shutdown. My husband is a federal employee, so I'm obviously biased here, but I am SO FED UP with the morons in Washington. If the government shuts down, there will be no paycheck for him...he won't have to work, either, but no paycheck. We'll be OK for a while, but it will eat up our savings and might wreak havoc on our summer vacation plans if it goes too long. Others will not be so lucky, though - those living paycheck-to-paycheck could lose their homes. Those in the armed forces at the front lines in the wars (too many stupid wars but don't get me started on that either) will not be paid either - they will at least get IOUs from the government so will get back pay later (my husband won't get this), but what good is an IOU when you are putting your life on the line for your country? How will it feed your family back home? I am furious. Congress needs to remove their collective heads from their behinds (that's a nice way of saying it...).