I'm back blogging!

Yup, I'm back.

I'm not back training, quite yet. However, I am feeling a little better I think. I know that's a very qualified statement, but these things are hard to measure. I have been able to racewalk 10K recently (in 1:01xx on Sunday - so even a decently fast time for an easy walk), which is an improvement, and this morning I did a 3K fartlek and feel surprisingly OK in that my muscles are not horribly sore this evening. Now that doesn't mean I'll feel OK tomorrow or that I'll be able to resume training, but I'm a bit more hopeful.

I'm back from vacation (2 weeks on a cruisetour to Alaska - WOW is all I have to say about that right here and now), and back writing my blog, which at least indicates I'm hopeful about getting back to training. I don't know if anyone is still reading it after my hiatus, but that's OK. I write it mostly for me and for my coach anyway :).

So this morning it was warm (75F or 24C) and humid, and I wasn't sure how I'd do. I knew it would hurt, and I wasn't looking forward to that. It did hurt, but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought. My warm-up went well; I did 1600m (just under a mile) in 9:45 and felt decent. Not great, but decent. More winded than I'd like, but my muscles felt OK which is an improvement over past track sessions recently. I did my dynamic stretching and got going. The first km was pretty good at 2:45.1 and 2:45.4 for the 500s for a total of 5:30.5. I thought maybe I'd gone out too fast and would die, but it wasn't too bad - I managed a 3:01.3 medium effort 500 followed by 2:48.5 hard 500, 3:00.3 medium, and last of all 2:48.4 hard for a total of 17:09. Average heart rate was 160.

I am pleased with this effort - it seems pretty good for how much time I've had off. Now the big question is how will I rebound from the effort? Will it be too much or will I be OK tomorrow? Stay tuned... tomorrow morning I'm to attempt 8-10km, coach says. I hope I can do it.