catching up; 5x1km

It's been 10 days since I've posted. Yikes! Well, all I've been doing (mostly) is cross-training, though I did walk last Sunday. I did 6.3km around Liberty Park in a nice fast 37:45 (6:00/km). I was pushing a little, but it was mostly easy and an enjoyable walk. (Garmin data for that here).

So, catching up:
Friday the 14th - 10K with Kelly, then biked to work
Saturday the 15th - elliptical
Sunday the 16th - RW around Liberty Park 6.3K
Monday 17th - elliptical, biked to work
Tuesday 18th - biked to work twice (went in early to do some stuff and decided to bike extra instead of elliptical)
Wednesday 19th - elliptical
Thursday 20th - elliptical, biked to work
Friday 21st - elliptical, abs, biked to work
Saturday 22nd - elliptical, then biked 10K while Kelly walked (I took video of Kelly for Jim)
Sunday 23rd - rest day prior to starting hard training again!

***

Today it was time to start training again. I was NOT looking forward to it at all. Training after a layoff is hard, and I feel like I'm just regaining my equilibrium after doing the 40K and then having 2 weeks to get my life back in order. I do want to do the 30K, though, and so I have to train. Fortunately it's only for 3 hard weeks and 2 medium-easy weeks. Coach thinks I can break 3 hr for the 30K *IF* all the stars align and everything goes just right. Attainable, but with some luck and a very good race day. I'll be happy with a good race where I feel strong to the finish, unlike the 40K. I may or may not get that, but here's hoping.

Knowing it was going to hurt, I drove to the track. At least the weather was nice - 63F and 63% humidity. Perfect. (Threatening rain - fall is here! It did rain on me a tiny bit on my subsequent bike ride up to work). I warmed up and felt pretty smooth for having had a few weeks off. I did my warm-up 1600m in 9:27 with 2x100m strides. After doing my dynamic stretching, I got started on the workout, hoping it wouldn't hurt too much. Ha! But you know, for 2 weeks off, it wasn't so bad. It felt bad, and I was slower than I have been, but it wasn't deathly slow for the most part.

Here were my splits: 5:27.2, 5:24.4, 5:26.5, and then it hurt more... 5:37.4, 5:34.4. On the last one, I just made it my goal to try and go faster than the 4th one. I did that by 3 seconds, but it was really hard. HR was up in the low 170s at the end of the last few.

Glad it's done. Next week's workouts will be a bit better I'm sure. My coach called me after the workout and I was glad he did. I needed the pep talk. He was happy with this and thought it was faster than he'd expected, and pointed out that fast twitch muscles lose it pretty fast, but come back pretty fast as well.

Garmin data here.