It's very difficult to get motivated to get back in shape. It's time-consuming, and the week after a vacation it's hard to get in high gear again to do all of the things I normally do. I was supposed to do this workout yesterday, but after babysitting 4 kids Tuesday night until 11pm, and then our dog waking me at 2am with incessant barking, it just wasn't going to happen. I postponed it to this morning.
This morning, I woke up and doubted myself. A lot. It was one of those mornings that I have (not infrequently) with a lot of negative thoughts spinning through my head. I try to tune them out and turn them off, but it's challenging not to dwell on them. This morning's sample: "You're wasting your time. You're not getting back into shape. You're eating too much crap and not losing weight, and deluding yourself that you can racewalk again. You won't be ready for Portland-to-Coast. You can't do a sub-28 minute 5K in October. Why are you bothering?" I went to the track anyway, and when I arrived the usual gate I go through was locked, because they are resurfacing a good portion of the one end of the field. It took me a while to walk all around and find an entrance that was open.
At least the weather was good. It was chilly for early August (but perfect workout temperature) at 58F (about 14C) and sunny, calm, and clear. I did 1500m warm-up with 2x100m strides and felt OK but not great. I was glad to be on a flat track with accurate 100m marks - helps to maintain pacing for this workout. Despite the help, the workout wasn't as good as the last two weeks. OK, well it was basically the same. I did 29:51 for the 5K (with ave HR 161, so I was working hard), but my medium-effort 500s were slower, indicative of still-poor fitness. Arrrgh. My fast 500s were 2:50-2:55, and my medium-effort 500s were 3:04-3:09 (the last one was NOT 3:10 as my watch shows, because I pushed stop a second too late). I'm disappointed that I'm not seeing faster progress, but I know at my age it is going to be slow. I'm just not patient. I should be happy that I get to work out again, but I'm just impatient!
Today's workout felt pretty hard. I want to be ready to move up to an 8K fartlek, but I'm not sure I am. I am not sure I'd have made 8K today. Probably wouldn't have. But I did OK for the 5K, I guess. Just have to get my stride back.
Garmin data here.
After my workout, I rode my bike to work. I was trying to prove to myself that I am still tough. Or something. That hill is a hard one, and I made it up pretty quickly. GRRRR!
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