rest day; 8K

Yesterday: rest day. Hadn't taken one in a couple weeks, so it was time.

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Today: 8K. Weather was beautiful; 64F (17C) and sunny and calm. Woke a bit on the groggy side but once I'd racewalked a couple km I felt much better; was apprehensive before starting out but my body responded well. I felt good this morning and didn't have any weird soreness or any other problems, other than the dog getting tired around 5km and having to stop a bit to give her a rest. Not sure what was up with that, as usually she is good to go for 10km no problem. Annoying.

It is wonderful to simply be able to train and not worry about how my body is going to do. Today's walk went really well, and though I was a little tired coming up the slight hill at the end, I kept my pace pretty well. Total was 50:32 for 6:19/km with ave HR 147.

***

After my walk I had to ride my bike to work. Was going to ride with Calvin but we both forgot that we left his bike at the U on Friday. I was going to get it this weekend but I forgot to do it when I went up to work on Saturday to do a couple things, so it wasn't in the garage and we were mystified until I remembered where we'd left it. So I drove him to Club U, then drove home and rode my bike up to work so that we can bike home together. Needless to say, my legs were a bit tired while riding my bike to work, pre-fatigued by the 8km racewalk. I didn't push hard at all, just hard enough to get up the hill, and since I am not having any weird soreness or severe fatigue, I think that was all right. Not ideal maybe, but OK.

Plans for the week: 10km on Wednesday and then 5K race on Friday for the 4th of July holiday. I'm going to be just terribly slow for the race, but it's a good way to get my speed work in for the week, and we were due to increase it by a couple km this week anyway. Being conservative, I will not do 12km this week; coach wants me to save that for next week now. Good idea. I don't want to relapse again and since we have no idea what was wrong or what triggers this we have to be careful.