Wednesday, August 26, 2015

3K fartlek

Yesterday: elliptical

Today: 3K fartlek. Skip the *** section below if you don't want to read a semi-rant about buying and selling homes.

***

Let me preface today's workout commentary by saying that I am giving myself a gold star for doing this one. Yesterday was a freakishly stressful day. The roof repair guys came at the same time as the buyer's home inspector, which in a way is good because they can see that we care (a lot!) about selling a quality home. I want it to be the best it can be for our buyers (not that they are likely to see it that way, though since I don't know them personally I can't say for sure). But this whole home selling process is very difficult, because your home is so personal and everyone is tromping through it and criticizing everything that you have done or not done to make it what it is, when they can't know and don't see all that you have done. Our home is SO very much better than it was 13 yr ago when we bought it - it was a very ugly granny-decorated home (think wallpaper, waterfall in basement!, severely damaged hardwood floors, 70s shag rug and paneling in basement) with only 1 bathroom, and now it's a lot better. But like I said, no one can see that.

I have just felt so raw and vulnerable during this time, and so has Loren. Add in the stress of clearing out for the home inspection, and then returning (after they said they'd be done) to find they needed more time, and well, it was a lot. Add in a very whiny 9yo daughter, and ensuing freak-out by husband which involved some profanity, followed by freak-out by daughter, followed by husband walking away from restaurant we were having dinner at (on the patio...so we could have the dogs there, because they had to be out too), and well, it was not a peaceful evening. Thankfully, said husband apologized later to said daughter and I think all is well now.

Now we wait some more, in a hot home because they are doing radon testing (which we DID 7 yrs ago and it was fine, AND we told them that!) and we have to have the swamp cooler OFF and the windows SHUT for two days. TWO DAYS. Then on Friday they are scoping our sewer. Geez. I feel like I'm getting my own personal colonoscopy, without anesthesia.

The consolations are this: 1) we will (hopefully) soon be moving into our new-to-us home, 2) some friends have been very supportive and understand that it's a stressful time and have pitched in a lot to help, 3) some friends from farther away have been encouraging on Facebook or other ways. Not so consoling: my parents have added to the stress by their critical response to my stress. It's not helpful to call for a listening ear when the result is someone telling you how poorly you are managing the situation. Like I said, it's a raw and vulnerable time, and I am just going to have to surround myself with supportive and helpful people and ignore the negatives. Somehow.

***

3K fartlek - as mentioned above, I get a gold star for doing this workout at all. Let's just say that after yesterday it's a miracle I got up and went to the track. I did go to bed early, which surely helped. And guess what? The high school track is OPEN again!!!! YAYAYAYAY!

It was warm this morning and humid, as a storm is coming through; 22.8C (73F). I did a slow warm-up (first lap very slow, as I wasn't feeling it) but sped up as I went and did the 1600m with strides in 10:33. My 100m strides felt good in about 32-33s each. I stretched a bit and got going on the fartlek.

It went reasonably well. Here are my times: 2:52.8, 2:53.0, 3:08.9, 2:51.3, 3:09.8, 2:49.3. Total 17:45.0 with ave HR 160, max 173, and 2 min recovery 122 (good!). That's not fast, but at least I'm able to train and despite the stress my HR is not going crazy. My resting HR has been up a bit (54-56 via fitbit) but not alarmingly so. I will keep monitoring it.

Garmin data here. 


2 comments:

Steve Finnell said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Harriet said...

Life stresses certainly affect one's training, and what you described is oh-so-stressful

So you deserve that gold star.