Saturday, April 08, 2017

18K at the Oval

Yesterday: ~35 min elliptical, plus did some hiking at Red Butte Garden (~30 min) very, very easy with a friend (she's in her mid-60s and a little frail for her age). 

Today: 18K on tap, and with it raining (hard) and 40F (4C), I opted for the indoor comfort of the Olympic Oval. It was odd today as there was no ice (!) just concrete where the 400m speed skating track usually is; I guess they have to redo the ice occasionally. So, no long track speed skaters to watch, though there were a few short track skaters on the two hockey rinks in the center of the oval. The track is 442m and so for me 6:30-6:45/km would be about 2:53-2:59 per lap. I was hoping to stay in that range, and I did overall, though there were a number of slower laps. Sigh. My legs were kind of tired by 10k, but not terrible; still, I wasn't feeling strong today. I also didn't feel awful, so I will take it :). No GI distress at all, which is great. Last week after my 16K I had problems, and also had some trouble after the 14K the week before, so no trouble is good news. 
I was slow, getting to 5K about 33 min and change, 10K about 1:06 and change, 15K in 1:40:40 or so, and 18K in 2:01:17. My pace overall was 6:44/km, which is a lot slower than I'd like to be, but my HR was mostly in the low to mid 150s (average was 149, but that reflects short stops for gel/water 4 times during the workout, I think) and I felt I was pushing the pace a little. The reality is that after not training for a long time, and increasing in age, I'm not going to be fast. But I'm glad I could train and prep some more for the half marathon in a few weeks. It will be slow, but at least I can do it, which is the main thing. 

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