I need to go on vacation more often. The stress relief has apparently been much more than I anticipated; my HR is lower (resting and training) and my RW performance has been really very good. Much better than at any time since getting sick in the spring of 2013. So the challenge when I go home tomorrow is to make sure that I somehow keep my stress levels lower.
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Yesterday: 8K with my brother, Alex. He and his girls joined us at Clear Lake for some camping. Gorgeous weather - hot in the day time (up to mid-90s) but cool at night and perfect RW weather in the morning. Alex pushed me to go a bit faster than I normally would and I did the 8K at 6:14/km with ave HR 152. Alex usually runs 8:30 miles for an easy pace, so he slowed down quite a bit for me, but he didn't mind and I really loved the chance to work out with him.
Today: 5K fartlek, alone. Warmed up with Calvin, who was to run a mile for soccer (coach's orders; they have a tournament Thurs-Sat) but then did the fartlek alone. The campground we were at was mostly flat but on the Garmin it shows a bit bigger elevation change than I expected, at 51m for the whole thing. I'm not sure that's accurate; I'd have guessed more like 15-20m but who knows? Regardless, it was my best fartlek since Sept 2014 when I was on vacation in Alaska with my mom and did a 28:35 at sea level. Hmmmm, vacation + relaxation + low stress = good performance. Yep, lower stress is good. Anyway, I did a 29:07 for today's fartlek with ave HR 162. My fast 500s were 2:46-2:50 and medium efforts 2:59-3:08. Nice. I'm very happy with this progress and have to ensure it continues when I go home.
Garmin data here for 8K and here for 5K fartlek.
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