2K, 2x1500, 2x500

Yesterday: rest day. Legs felt well-recovered. I was very sleepy yesterday, though, and in general I have felt a bit fatigued this week. I think traveling, plus returning to work after a 4-day weekend, plus a few extra things on the docket this week have made me tired. But I'm noting it in case I have any trouble with the mystery illness.

Today (Memorial Day; photo at left with flag in our neighborhood; the Boy Scouts will put a flag in your yard on holidays, for a fee - interesting cultural tidbit for international readers): 2K, 2x1500, 2x500. The track is still not an option, so 800 East will have to do. It's straight, has relatively little traffic early in the morning, and is sort of flat. Sort of. Good enough I guess. I warmed up with ~1650m easy with strides, on a slight downhill, in 10:24 for 6:17/km. My legs felt good. I did some dynamic stretches and got going. The weather was pretty nice to start; 12.2C or 54F and overcast and calm, but pretty soon it started raining. It's been raining A LOT lately. Like every day, which for here is really weird even though May is one of our wettest months. It's still a desert, so the daily rain is unusual. At least it wasn't raining hard this morning - at worst it was a gentle rain, and mostly it was just drizzling.

I felt like I took it pretty easy on the first 2K; pushing comfortably hard to pace myself for what was to come, but in hindsight maybe it was too fast? I did well, doing the 2K in 11:33.8. But my heart rate didn't recover well, and that continued throughout the workout. By the last interval it didn't drop below 130, which is really unusual for me. Generally it gets down to 115-120 even in a hard interval workout. I am wondering what's going on and if it is significant? I will have to ask Jim, because it does have me a bit concerned. Anyway, after the fast 2K the rest of the workout wasn't very fast, but I got it done. The first 1500m was on a slight uphill (after the slight downhill of the 2K), and it was 8:49.6 (slow). And then my legs were tired, so the slight downhill 1500m that came next was also not fast at 8:50.0. I picked it up a little for the first 500m (slight downhill) at 2:52.9, but then on the last 500m (slight uphill) I could only manage 2:54.9. Edited to add: 35:01.2 for the 6K. Not terrible, but not very good either. Not as good as when I did this workout a couple weeks ago, but it's going to take some time to improve. After a long layoff like I've had, I have to be patient.

Today I was thinking about Perth (WMA 2016) and wondering if I really want to go if I don't improve my speed much. Is it worth it to go i
f I know I'm unlikely to m
edal? I think the answer is still yes, because of the opportunity to travel with Loren and also because I want to see my friends! I really want to see Nyle and David again, and I know I'd enjoy the vacation. I have to keep considering it though. I don't know what my body is going to do, and it may not continue to improve much; it's unpredictable.

After my workout I had breakfast with Kelly, her fiancé Chris, and Loren and the kids, which was wonderful. We ate at a perennial favorite, the Dodo, and enjoyed the food and the company a lot. That was my reward for a workout well-done, even if it wasn't fast.

Garmin data here.