5K

Easy 5K this morning. No problems. Piriformis feels fine; am working hard to keep upright and make sure my knees are coming through straight and that I am using my flutes more. Still...need to do strength training...no time...have to figure it out. Weather was decent and seasonal at 30F (-1C) with a slight breeze.

Mood isn't good. Not enough sleep last night after staying up late to do something at work :(. Then I ate a big piece of cake :(. Ugh. Feeling a bit bleak. Oh well. This too shall pass.

At least it's Friday. But I'm anxious about 16km tomorrow. I want to do it and want it to go well but worry it won't. I really want to be able to go long again without being so afraid.

Garmin data here from this morning. 32:20 for 6:28/km with ave HR 142.

cross-training; 8K

Yesterday: I took it really easy. I was afraid of two things: 1) increasing any piriformis problems and 2) mystery illness relapse. I slept in a little and then only had time to do 21 min on the elliptical. That was enough; I am working hard on my eating and was quite careful. It was a co-worker's birthday and I did enjoy a very small piece of carrot cake (that I made for him) but had a very modest dinner of turkey soup to compensate. I feel good about how the eating is going now that I'm back from vacation.

Today: After going to bed early last night, I woke feeling better than I've felt all week. That's not saying much, but I did feel good. I went out for my 8K, and it was reasonably warm for February, at 36F (2.2C) and calm and overcast, with rain predicted. Well...they got that one wrong, as it's been snowing since about 9am! Glad I got my walk in early. The 8K went well; my piriformis felt OK, no weird soreness resulted, and I wasn't fast but wasn't slow either. It took me 51:44 for 6:28/km with ave HR 152. Sugar, my dog, sure enjoyed getting to walk with me again after a hiatus due to vacation and then bad weather on Monday.

Other minor items - I'm still a bit concerned that I could be having a little relapse of the mystery illness. It's hard to tell minor weird soreness from the piriformis issue; they are different, but there is some overlap. Also, I've been a bit fatigued this week but that could easily be attributable to 1) the time change from CA and 2) being back from vacation. Finally, I have lost a bit of the weight from vacation; probably some water, but hey, who cares? Scale's moving in the right direction. 162.4 this morning, down from 164.0 on Saturday. Hopefully it's a trend. I'm working hard. Need to get to a reasonable number by May to improve my 15K speed. Of course, being able to train will help equally. Hopefully we can increase the speed work one of these days. Seems like there are lots of roadblocks at the moment. I'm trying to remain positive and enjoy my workouts stress-free, but that's hard given that I'm worried about mystery illness and piriformis trouble.

Garmin data here. 

Below, snow as seen from work today.

ugggghhhhh

I hate coming back from vacation.

Yesterday: couldn't wake up (time difference). Had to go to indoor track after work because of the cold and wind - super windy. Left work late and so had a limited amount of time and only managed 21 laps on the track for 6.145km instead of the 8km I was supposed to do. Piriformis was nagging a bit but otherwise OK. Did 6:17/km for 38:37 with ave HR 152. I felt strong. Garmin data here. 

Today: went to track a bit late (again...time difference) and there was construction there and I had to park on the side and then couldn't figure out how to get in. Grrrr. Finally figured it out and warmed up. Then while doing drills after warming up (just dynamic stretching) my piriformis was really nagging badly. It hurt. I decided that I did NOT want to push it by doing speed work. Obviously I need to strengthen my left glutes so my piriformis is not so overworked, but of course that requires time. Time I maybe don't have, but had better find or I will be back to spinning because of injury. So I skipped my 3K fartlek and went home. My kids were grumpy. It was a lousy morning. Work wasn't so hot either (so far). Oh well.

Not sure what to do now, but definitely no speed work today. I might go do the elliptical later and tomorrow as well, and then RW again on Thursday. I have to do some strength exercises. Used my new ball for massage, which helped. I also have a bit of delayed onset muscle soreness from yesterday's workout on the indoor track; I think the 90 degree turns are rough on my body.

Coming back just sucks. I'm not sure I can do this.

5K; good solid 14K

Yesterday: unremarkable 5K with Calvin (fun!) on Fiesta Island in San Diego in 31:46 for 6:21/km. I had a little soreness afterward for an hour or two; felt that it might be the weird soreness from my mystery illness. Not 100% sure though...it was fairly mild, so that's good. I was pretty concerned, but after today not as worried.

Today: Lovely weather as usual...about 63F (17Cish?) and overcast and breezy. Wind in my face going south (the first 7km) then at my back going north (last 7 km). Felt nice to have the wind at my back for the last part. My legs were pretty good until about 11km, then quite tired the last 3km but was able to finish strong. It helped that I ran into Miranda Melville & Emmanuel Corvera at 12.5km or so - they were warming up for their speed work (Miranda had a total of 14km of speed work...she's looking good and in fine shape!) and we chatted for a minute before I continued on; they had parked at the same place I did on the Silver Strand at Fiddler's Cove. That part was not a total coincidence, as Rachel Seaman had told me on Facebook that was a good place to park for walking on the bike/running trail on the Silver Strand. It was indeed quite lovely, though state highway 75 is adjacent so it's not quiet. Still, good asphalt surface and great views! When I finished my 14km I chatted some more with them and with Tim Seaman, who was there coaching them and had his very cute daughter in the stroller.

My total for 14km was 1:29:39 for 6:24/km (subtracted 2:13 that I was stretching but forgot to stop my watch at 10.5km). I have no idea what my average HR was, but I was taking it pretty easy and when I did stop to stretch at 7km and 10.5km I checked my HR manually and it was about 150, which seemed quite reasonable.

Afterward - so far, no weird soreness (it's now 11:35 and I finished about 3 hr ago); stretched a lot and massaged piriformis with a firm ball I bought for this purpose at Target. The box also included a more spiky ball for doing feet, etc. The balls are a little smaller than a tennis ball and very hard. SUPER for massaging piriformis. Highly recommend.

Garmin data here. 

8K and feeling good

This morning I happily went out to do 8K in San Diego. It was the usual perfect San Diego winter morning, at 15C (60F) slight overcast, and a little ocean breeze. Calvin accompanied me to Mission Bay, near Mission Beach, and we enjoyed running (Calvin) and racewalking (me) along the oceanfront. Wow. So amazing. Seriously, if I were a professional racewalker, I'd live here, as Tim and Rachel Seaman do. Great choice for always having the perfect weather to train in, which does mean a lot when you're doing that many km.

Anyway, today's walk went well. I'm having a little left piriformis issue that began with the 14K on Saturday and worsened with the car ride down here, but it's not bad. I initially thought it was some of the weird soreness, but I'm now convinced it was not, and that it's just my old piriformis friend acting up again. I know what to do. It's time to break out the PT exercises and the yoga for runners. Maybe not this week while I'm on vacation, but definitely when I return.

Today's 8K went well. My legs initially felt a bit heavy (maybe from the fartlek yesterday?) but settled in quickly and I really did feel good, other than the occasional niggle from the piriformis. Calvin wimped out at 6K and so I left him in the car with my phone playing games while I did the last 2K out and back near the car. He's doing well with his training though, and should be easily up for the 5-miler (8K) in Moab on March 21 when I do the half marathon. Now will I be up for the half marathon? I think so. We'll see.

Anyway, I was fast today and felt good. Total time was 50:22 for the 8K for 6:18/km with unknown average HR. Garmin data here. 

cross-training; 3K fartlek

After Saturday's somewhat disastrous 14K, Jim decided that I should have an extra day of cross-training. I'm too smart (? or something?) to argue with my coach, and besides, he's usually right. So I did the elliptical 30 min and the bike 15 min each day on Sunday and Monday. My legs were a bit sore on Saturday and Sunday, and it was possibly a bit of the weird soreness....i.e. the mystery illness. But we also did a long drive Saturday and a shorter drive Sunday, and sitting always does bad things to me, so honestly I think it was the drive. So does Jim. But just to be safe, an extra day of cross-training.

Today I got to do a track workout :). I was kind of psyched for it, weirdly. Maybe it's because I'm in San Diego and at sea level and it's not cold at all. In fact, it's lovely here. I mean, we're having a warm winter in Salt Lake, but it's nothing like a San Diego winter. I lived here in San Diego for 6 years (undergrad at UCSD and two years after that, working for Invitrogen back when it was a small company), and I've missed it ever since. We have settled into life in Salt Lake City now and I don't really want to move to San Diego any more, but I have to admit that visiting here for a week now and then is very, very nice.

But I digress. The track workout. I did a short warm-up of only 1200m because I was worried about parking (it's free only until 7am and I was pushing that; I probably left at 7:10am and fortunately I didn't get a ticket). I felt OK on the warm-up but a bit intimidated by the large number of people at the track. There were probably 20 runners there doing workouts, and a lot of them were pretty good. But they were quite nice, and didn't seem to mind me using lane 1 when I actually started my fartlek. It looked like they were a lot of triathletes (some of them were spinning by the start line) and many of them were middle-aged or older, though some were younger. A nice crowd; I heard one of them say "speed walking" and smiled inwardly.

My fartlek went really well this morning. I felt strong and good, and my recoveries were better than they have been. I have to say that track workouts at sea level always feel easier. In any case, I was almost 20 seconds faster than last week, which was great. My times were 2:50.2, 2:54.4, 3:06.4, 2:54.7, 3:06.6, 2:49.8 (yes, I really worked that last 500!) for a total of 17:42. I left my HR monitor in Salt Lake by mistake...sigh...but I was working hard and felt good. I'm glad that I felt good today and that I'm improving, though I will admit that I'm a bit worried that the increase in speed was all due to altitude. Ah well, you can't have everything. I enjoyed the workout and am fortunate to be healthy enough to do it, and that's what matters.

Garmin data here. 

Photo of me at the track - it's really a nice track!

14K slog

Well...I did it. It was ugly and slow, but it's done.

The weather was good at 2.8C (37F) and calm and clear. My legs? Not so good. They were heavy right from the start, and when I arrived at 5K in 32:20ish, I was tired and knew it was gonna be a tough one. By 7K I was counting down the km eagerly. By 9K my legs were just really tired. No weird soreness, though. Just heavy and tired. That's the good news. The bad news is that the last 5K set a new record in pathetic-ness, and my overall time was so very, very slow. Ughhhhh. I really hate when workouts go this way. I know in my head that it's OK, but it just feels so NOT OK when I'm out there.

Total time 1:33:11 for 6:39/km with ave HR 145. Garmin data here. 

Next week will be better. I just didn't have it today. Sugar, my dog, did fine... :).

Easy 5K

Today: Easy 5K in 32:23 for 6:28/km w/ave HR 145. Felt good. No problems. Weather seasonable at 1.1C (34F) calm and clear. Calvin came along and we had a lovely chat :).

Garmin data here. 

8K + 3x200 @85% effort

I don't know what it is about Thursdays. I was slow today, and slow last Thursday too. But I'm still feeling good: no fatigue, and no weird soreness, and as long as I can train I'll eventually be faster. So Jim says, anyway. I have to be patient.

The weather was pretty nice: 36F (2.2C) and calm and clear. I took the dog and did the 8K without incident, doing my technique exercises after the first 2km. Other than being slow, I felt OK. My legs were a bit tired, but otherwise fine.

Total time for 8K was 52:47 for 6:36/km with ave HR 141. The 3x200 @85% was pathetically slow (at 500m I was at 2:55...ughhhh!) but I got them done.

Garmin data here for 8K and here for 3x200.

***

Edited to add: yesterday I cross-trained 30 min on the elliptical in the morning and 22 min at night - took Grace to Steiner for a swim after I did my elliptical, and she loved it.

3K fartlek

I usually don't relish speed work, and today was no exception. But I am more than willing to do it since I know I won't get fast again without it, and I really want to do a fast 15K in May, 50K again in December, and go to Perth for World Masters in October 2016. So...speed work it is.

The weather was cooperative this morning, as it has been all season :). 39F (3.9C) and clear with a light breeze. Perfect. I headed to the track in my warm tights, long-sleeved Portland-to-Coast shirt, gloves, headband and headlight (yeah, still dark when starting workouts). I did a warm-up and my legs felt a bit stumpy/off from the DOMS from playing basketball/skating, but that was to be expected. My warm-up was good, though - 1600m with 2x100m strides in 10:08 with ave HR 140.

I waved hello to a couple I frequently see walking (casual walking) on the track and then got started. The first km felt pretty hard, and my 500s were 2:53.4 and 2:57.5. I was pretty sure then that this wasn't going to be good, but it actually ended up OK. My 500m medium was 3:08.9, a bit faster than they have been, which encouraged me. My next 500m fast was 2:55.8 (haha not that fast...but I'm coming back so it's OK), and the medium effort was 3:10.3. The final 500m fast was a very hard effort but I did 2:52.6, my fastest 500 of the day, so I'm pleased with that.

Total time 17:59, and average HR 160. Faster than last week with a lower HR. I'll take that. And I'm finally under 18 min, which is less humiliating. It's still slow, but at least it's not embarrassingly slow. The best part is that so far nothing is hurting. No weird soreness. No fatigue. I can train! Yay!

The sunrise and clouds post-workout were great, and I took a selfie at the track, too :).

Garmin data here. 

cross-training; 8K on tired-ish legs

Sunday: weather was amazing for early February - low 60s and sunny - so couldn't resist some basketball with Calvin. Loren and Grace came to the park, too, and we all played HORSE for some shooting practice, and then Calvin and I played one-on-one half court for about 45 min. It was great exercise and a lot of fun, too! I'm a dismal shooter, so even though I am double Calvin's weight and a foot taller, he actually did pretty well against me. We were really breathing and worked up quite a sweat - Calvin's face was all red when we were done. He actually laid down on the grass and crashed when we finished. I regard it as a supreme accomplishment to have worn out my 10-year-old. I felt fine...yesterday...but today I'm quite sore :) (and Calvin is NOT!). 10-year-olds have some advantages!

Then last night the kids' youth group went ice skating and of course I couldn't resist coming along for the fun. I skated a lot and practiced all the moves I remembered from my classes. It was good to be back on skates again. My toe was very sore after the basketball and a bit sore after the skating as well; I iced it after each event.

Today: still nice weather. It was 54F (12C) and windy this morning. Not too windy to racewalk outside though. I wore lightweight tights and a long-sleeved shirt because of the wind; normally at 54F I'd wear short sleeves and shorts, but not today. I took the dog and tried holding the leash by draping it over my left arm and then holding the end in my fist, but it was too hard to RW that way, so I went back to tying her around my waist. I just hope she doesn't freak out randomly again.

My legs were pretty sore from yesterday's basketball and skating, and by 5km I was very tired. However, I still managed a decent time, and besides, time still doesn't matter. I just need to get out there and get back into it. I did the 8km in 52:20 for 6:32/km with ave HR 145. HR was lower than it has been - that might be a good sign.

Garmin data here. 

In other news, my boss got into the Wasatch 100 in the lottery. I think he's insane, but I admire it all the same. Our lab might set up some aid stations for him and cheer him on to the finish.

And finally, can't remember if I posted that I lost 1.6lb last week. I'm doing a bet on stickK.com, and welcome your support. I want to be at a decent weight for the 15K in May :).

12K indoors

This morning it was really, really windy. It was warm, and maybe I could have gone outdoors, and maybe that would have been OK, but maybe it wouldn't have been so great. I decided to try the new indoor track at the brand-new Student Life Center at the U (floor plans of the facility here). I have a membership there through campus recreation, because I had a membership at the Field House (the old gym at the U) so I could use their 211m track in the winter. The new facility is amazing and beautiful, and has a 292.608m track (the track is 320 yards...um, yeah...can we get metric already? Appalling!). I was quite excited to try the new track, but with my broken toe, and with so much nice weather, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet, even though the new facility has been open for at least 3 weeks now.

The verdict? The indoor track is beautiful, but...well...has WAY too many turns. Who designed this @*&$# thing?

I mean, it's really a nice surface and a nice big indoor track, but it has EIGHT turns. Sigh. I don't know how useful this will be for speed work; as you can see above many of the turns are very sharp 90-degree angles, and the turn by the #1 is an even greater angle. It's annoying. It was fine for an easy 12K workout, which is good. I'm just a bit anxious about doing speed work on it. It might be fine. It might not. If it's not fine, then this is not good, since the old Field House 211m track worked great for speed work with its FOUR turns and oval shape. Then my next best option for winter speed work is the Olympic Oval's 442m track, which is wonderful, but a 25-min drive, which adds 50 min to my already very busy weekdays if I have to do speed work. Grrrr.

It was great for 12K though - I did some technique drills as I've been doing recently, one per lap, and five different drills. That helped me count laps and not get off, and kept my mind engaged. The views from the windows in this facility are simply stunning - WAY better than the Field House, which was also super helpful. I did enjoy working out here, for sure. 41 laps went by pretty quickly (with brief stops at 20 and 30 laps for water), and the workout went well. I will admit to pushing fairly hard, harder than I should on an "easy" day, but I really wanted to have a good workout under my belt. I completed the 12K in 1:17:08 for 6:26/km with ave HR 150 (weird...on my watch it said 154, but on the website once uploaded it says 150 - it FELT more like 154 - was pushing it pretty hard; many laps were 160 average HR - see splits and Garmin data here). My legs were pretty tired from about 9km onward, but I dug deep, enjoyed my music (I allow myself music if working out indoors), and tried to channel my inner Maria Michta :) (our fastest US woman; was reading her blog this morning and she actually has a photo of me on there with her after the 30K in 2012 - we are both in science, so we have a lot in common).

After I finished the workout, I walked a lap to cool off and took photos of the place for you, my readers. Then I changed into my swimsuit and enjoyed a soak in the very large hot tub before heading home. It felt wonderful. The pool is AMAZING. If I were a swimmer, wow, I'd be there all the time. There is an INDOOR 50m pool that can be divided into two 25-yard pools (as it was this morning). I have photos of that, too.

I took so many photos that I just put them in an online album - you can see them here. But my favorites I'll put here. Me in the hot tub, and some of the views from the facility.

knee is OK; 5K easy

My knee was OK when I woke up. It's still a bit sore, but better than yesterday and racewalking was no problem this morning.

It was really warm again this morning, at 7.8C (46F), so I wore capri pants and a long-sleeved shirt. I thought it was 50F so I didn't wear gloves, but I didn't really miss them even though it wasn't actually quite 50F. Calvin came along with me for the 5K, and he walked Sugar (holding her leash in his hand just in case!). She was really well-behaved though, and I'm sure what happened yesterday was a total fluke. Anyway, Calvin and I had a great time. We ran/walked (he ran, I walked) 5K in 32:20 for 6:28/km and my legs felt really good. No problems. We enjoyed chatting and I'm sure he'll run with me again soon. He's "training" (lightly) for a 5-mile (8K) race in Moab in March, when I do the half marathon there.

I screwed up my watch and somehow pressed the start button again later on the bus up to work, so the Garmin data isn't worth considering, and I don't know my ave HR for my 5K but looking at my splits it was probably ~150.

Tomorrow is 12K. Gulp. Nervous about that, which is completely ridiculous as it's historically a very short distance for me, but what can I say? I haven't gone that far in a while, so I guess it's normal to be a bit nervous.

6.5K and mishap

I only made it 6.5K today. At 4.16km, my dog FREAKED OUT for no apparent reason (no dogs visible, nothing else going on) and jumped and twisted, and took me down. She has never done anything like this before so I am still shocked. I lost my balance (I RW with her leash around my waist so I don't have to hold it) when 90 lb of dog suddenly lunged, and I flipped around in the air and somehow stumbled to the sidewalk strip and fell on my back in the grass. I was initially relieved that nothing hurt...but when I got up I noticed that my left knee was hurting a bit in the front and on the left side. I managed to racewalk home slowly (I had already been going slowly - legs quite tired from yesterday's cycling), with only a bit of pain. I had Loren examine my knee and nothing big is amiss - all the ligaments are OK and now at lunch time it's just a bit sore. I think this might just clear up in a day or two, but it does have me rather upset. Grrrrrrr.

Here's my data...if you care.

Total 6:49km in 43:50 for 6:46/km with ave HR 146, and one very upset Tammy who still hopes to walk 5K tomorrow. I iced the knee when I got home.

Cross-training

Today was my cross-training day. It was bizarrely warm here yesterday (59F=15C!) afternoon, and it rained last night. Weird. This time of year it should be snow, not rain, not that I'm complaining. Anyway, it was warm this morning too, and so I got up a bit later, did only 30 min on the elliptical at the gym, and then rode my bike to work. In February!

Total of 52 min of good cardio :). That plus a large steaming mug of coffee made my morning a lot better. In addition, I've really been focused more on eating well, and that's made me happier and more optimistic. I know the weight loss will come when I have that kind of focus, and I need it to happen so I'm ready for a great 15K in May.

3K fartlek

I've been working hard on my technique. I mention this now because I was a little sore this morning - the usual delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) that follows unaccustomed activity. I think the fact that I did a bunch of technique exercises while doing a moderately hard uphill (the uphill was gentle, but the effort moderately hard) yesterday made my muscles sore. Calves and left glutes were definitely noticing it; I'm glad the left glutes were sore in particular because I know they are weaker and I was really working to get them engaged.

These are the exercises I did while walking; I'd do them in order for about 100-300m, picking a landmark to stop at and to start the next one.

1. Squeeze glutes as I walk, focusing on engaging gluteus medius in addition to gluteus maximus.
2. Walk with a wider stance.
3. Walk focused on keeping pelvis tilted upright so I am not "sitting". I tried to imagine my pelvis as a bowl full of water that I was trying to keep from sloshing. I also thought about straight knees while doing this, as the two go together.
4. Focus on arms - make sure they are driving straight back (no "chicken wings") and that they are not in front of me too much ("playing the piano").
5. Focus on toe-off - allow fluid hip rotation and push all the way through my toes.

I also did these on Saturday during my 10K, and will continue to use them to focus on improving technique. I want to come back faster than ever, and this will be a key element of that.

Today's workout went well despite the soreness, which surprised me. OK, my fast 500m were a bit slower, probably due to the soreness, but my medium 500m intervals were much better this week. Maybe I'm starting to get fit again.

The weather and the air quality were very good this morning. It had showered during the night and the track was wet with small puddles, but it was warm and not raining when I went. At 44F (6.7C) it was almost surreally warm for early February, but hey, I'm certainly not complaining.

I did my 1600m warm-up in a relatively slow 10:19 with my usual 2x100m strides. I felt quite sluggish to start but by the time I finished the warm-up my legs actually felt pretty good. Strong, and no weird soreness at all.

The 3K fartlek went decently. Here are my 500m splits: 2:56.5 (pushed watch a couple sec late, so this interval is faster and the next slower), 2:58.6, 3:11.4 (medium), 2:58.1, 3:11.0 (medium), 2:57.6. I wish my fasts had been faster, but I'm OK with it at this stage. Total time was 18:13, which is a good bit faster than last week, and considering my soreness today, I'm happy with this. I mean, I'd like to get back under 18 min (heck, I'd like to be a LOT faster) but one has to start somewhere, right? My average HR was 163, 2 beats slower than last week, which is good; max was 171.

Garmin data here.

elliptical; 8K

Yesterday: optional day, but I decided to cross-train. I need to lose weight, and sitting around on my duff all day eating and watching football is not good for that. So I made sure that I got to the gym and did 45 min on the elliptical. I did watch football, and I did eat snacks, but I was careful.

Speaking of weight loss, please follow me on www.stickK.com to see how I do and to encourage me with my commitment to lose 8.6 pounds by May 9 (the weekend before the Riverside 15K). I want to be in prime racing shape!

Today: 8K. I had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, so decided to go in to work an hour late and then stay an hour later. No biggie; I'm 30 hr/week so there's some flexibility built in there. I got the kids off to school and then went for my racewalk. It was raining lightly (very light drizzle) but enough to get a bit damp; however, as it was a nice warm 42F (5.5C) I didn't mind too much. Sugar didn't seem to mind either. She enjoyed getting out and whining at all the other dogs on the route :). My legs started off very sluggish and the first km was about 6:45, but after that I started to feel better. The route I chose, along the new S line in SugarHouse, was a slight downhill from 1km to 4.1km, then slightly uphill back to 7km or so. That's reflected in my relatively fast splits (just over 3:00) from 1 to 4km. Legs did pretty well until maybe 6.5km, when I got tired. My toe was rather grumpy for the last 2km as well :(. Hopefully I won't have to back off because of that.

Totals: 8km in 51:34 for 6:27/km with ave HR 153. 

10K racewalking :)

I made it to 10K, AND I feel good. Mostly. My toe got more annoyed than usual, starting to bug me a lot at 8K or so. I probably need to take some ibuprofen and ice it but I keep putting it off...lots to do on the weekend.

The weather was very cooperative, warm for January at 2.8C (37F) with a light breeze and sunshine, and very little air pollution with PM2.5 at 3.9 ug/m3 this morning. I took Sugar along and we had a very enjoyable walk together.

My Garmin has been acting really odd in the first 500m of my walks. Sometimes it WAY overestimates the distance and sometimes underestimates. This morning it marked 500m about 30 seconds too early...so I'm adding 30 sec to my total time for "10K" as the watch recorded it. It's funny, because after that first 500m it always seems fine; when I do the same route it marks 500m at the same spots. Oh well. Annoying but not insurmountable.

I felt very good today - my legs felt well-recovered, and were not heavy and tired until about 8.5km. That is a vast improvement over Thursday and Friday. I know I'll have more bad days, but I have to enjoy the good ones, right?

Total: 10K in 1:03:58 (with the extra 30 sec) for 6:24/km with ave HR 149. 

Edited to add photo:

easy 5K

Today an easy 5K was on the schedule. I was glad it was only 5K because my legs got a bit tired around 3K. No weird soreness, though, so we are all good so far.

It was a bit warmer this morning - unusually warm for January, in fact. It was 2.8C (37F), calm and cloudy. The pollution levels were higher, in the "yellow" zone, with PM2.5 at 13 ug/m3. That's still pretty low here for January, so not complaining too much there. I did my part and took the bus to work this morning, and walked the kids to school.

Total for today was 32:18 for the 5K, which is 6:27/km with ave HR 145. 

It's been a very stressful week with lots of things to take care of regarding Loren's dad's estate, and lots of conversations with family members. Some very stressful, and some very nice, mostly depending on which family member we were talking too :). I'm just noting this because I want to sort of keep tabs on the stress levels in my blog, so if that affects things a lot I'll be more informed.

elliptical; very slow 8K

Yesterday: 45 min elliptical

Today: This morning was a very slow 8K. But it's done. My legs felt fine - no weird soreness, not sore in any way, but I was just slow. By 6K they felt very heavy, and then I was even slower. No matter - coach promised that times are not important right now. I have a hard time remembering that, and I admit it's discouraging being so slow, but I have to remember that climbing out of this hole is going to be very slow at the outset and then I'll gain momentum. Hopefully.

For the record, the weather was -2.2C (28F) with a very slight breeze. It felt a lot colder, perhaps because the humidity was 90%. Damp makes everything feel colder. Brrrrrr. The air quality was good, though - we have a problem with pollution here, especially in the winter. Today the PM2.5 was 3.9 ug/m3, which is quite good for January (a "green" day), but we had a front come through and clean things out. Other mornings this week the air quality has been "yellow", at 21 ug/m3 or more. I am going to start tracking this and see if it's affecting my workouts. Ironically, I received a telephone survey as I was typing this, and the survey had many questions about my opinion about what the Utah Legislature should do about our air quality. It does impact my life as someone who exercises outside and as someone who has young children who do not get to play outside at school on "red" days.

Anyway...that was a long detour.

Total time was 52:55 for 6:37/km with ave HR 149. 

3K fartlek

I wasn't super excited about doing this workout, mostly because I knew I'd be slow. But on the other hand, I am happy I can do it --- so I had mixed feelings. Add in cold, and dark, and well...it wasn't easy to get out of bed. But I did, and I'm celebrating that small achievement.

I got to the track (and it was still dark, and still cold at -1C, or 30F). For January, that's actually warm, so I guess I can be happy about that? There was a slight breeze which chilled me a bit every time I came around the 100m mark. I warmed up OK in 10:05 for 1600m including 2x100m strides, and my legs felt well-recovered. No weird soreness, and not excessively heavy. But I didn't feel fast.

I wasn't fast. Before I started I took a few deep breaths and said out loud (there was no one else there), "If this takes me 18:30 or 19:00 it doesn't matter at all. I'm just getting started. I will get faster. Time doesn't matter." Or something to that effect. I was really trying to believe it, and I DO believe it. It's still hard to be slow, but yeah, you've gotta start somewhere.

I am proud that I worked very hard today and my HR was very high - I obviously gave this my all for a workout of this type. My ave HR was 165, and my max was 174. Today's achievement was in getting out of bed, getting out to the track, and working hard. That is where the accomplishment is.

Time: 18:27 with splits of 2:54.4, 2:58.4, 3:18.2, 2:59.1, 3:19.9, and 2:57.4. All mostly irrelevant. Merely a baseline for comparison, or so I'm telling myself.

Some more perspective: in 2011, when coming back from not training for at least a similar length of time, my first fartlek was slower than today (18:34) with the same HR. So this seems like a reasonable first outing today.

My toe is still a bit swollen and sensitive, but speed work is not exacerbating it. I'm adding a picture just because it's interesting (to me anyway). You can see how toe #4 (next to pinky toe) is wider and puffy. But the pain isn't bad at all; just a bit sore, and it lets me know if it's had enough (i.e. after standing a lot doing fish work in the lab).

slow 8K but still feeling good

Coach Jim told me to not worry at all about my speed right now. If I'm slow for the next month, no matter; what's critical is recovery from workouts. So, when I was slow this morning, I tried to just focus on getting some exercise, having good form, and just enjoying being out there. The latter was a bit tricky because it was chilly, though my dog Sugar loved it. Considering that it's January it was actually pretty warm, but I'm a cold wimp. It was 31F (about -1C) and calm and clear, but my legs felt rather cold, and I was more than ready for a hot shower afterward.

I was slow and my legs felt surprisingly heavy, though none of the weird soreness was apparent. After yesterday's rest day I figured I'd be faster, but oh well. I wasn't.

Total time: 8K in 52:41 for 6:35/km with ave HR 155. 

schedule for the upcoming week

Hot off the press - posting so I have it written down somewhere convenient :).

8km mon, fartlek tues, 8km thurs, 5km fri, 10km sat

8K and doing a bit better today

I did 8K today. I'm really happy about it for two reasons:

1) It was my FIFTH racewalking workout this week. Now, admittedly, the workout yesterday was very short (3.6km including warm-up), but I haven't done five workouts in one week in a very long time, probably since before the mystery illness started in spring 2013 (though I haven't looked).
2) My legs felt good; a bit tired the last km, but good overall. I wouldn't have wanted to go 10km today, so the distance was right for this week, but I feel good. I recovered well from yesterday's brief speed work.

So - onward and upward!

More details - weather was good for January, at -2.2C (28F) and clear and calm. It was sunny; I waited until 9am to go because I wanted to walk in the sunshine instead of the dark, and now that the kids are older that is an option on Saturdays :). I brought the dog, and we had a great time together.  Sugar is SO happy that I'm racewalking again, because that means she's getting lots of exercise, and she loves it too.

Totals: 8K in 51:13 for 6:24/km with ave HR 150. I'm very happy with that! My toe hurt a tiny bit for the first km and then settled in and was maybe a 1 of 10 on the pain scale for the rest of the walk. I'll take that. It's continuing to improve gradually. 

2K fartlek

Warm-up: 1600m plus strides in 10:02. I felt OK. It's more effort to do 6:15-6:20/km pace than it should be...sigh.....

Workout: 2K fartlek: 400m fast, 400m medium effort, 400m fast, 400m medium effort, 400m fast. Coach gave me this to help me ease back in. Usually we do a 3K fartlek but I was happy to do just this much - my legs are just pathetic. Actually, they feel fine now (lunch time) but my performance on this workout was just sad :(. Oh well. I'll get better. The main question at this point is how I will recover and how I'll feel tomorrow.

Times: total time 12:08.
400m fast 2:14
medium 2:38
fast 2:20
medium 2:39
fast 2:18

Garmin data here.  

elliptical; 6K

Yesterday: 45 min elliptical.

Today: 6K racewalking. It was quite cold this morning at 21F (-6.1C). Yay, January. At least it was calm and not snowing. My legs felt decent today, too. Last night while watching a play at Calvin's school, they got kind of irritated with sitting for an hour; likewise this morning at breakfast with my dad, but I'd say the soreness was minimal and doesn't seem to be a big deal. I'm just noting it in case it changes appreciably. The 6K this morning was a bit better than the walks on Monday and Tuesday in that my legs didn't feel too tired or heavy until about 5K, and even then, they were pretty good. Improvement noted. However, my HR still got up to 160 trying to keep my pace at 6:30 or less. I did succeed at that, though. It will be nice when I am back in a little better shape. That's going to take time and effort, and right now I'm trying not to think too much about that, as it's discouraging.

Total time: 38:39 for 6K for 6:27/km with ave HR 150. 

6K

Weather: 30F (-1.1C) and calm and clear. Air quality good. It was dark when I started though, as usual for a weekday winter morning.

I walked 6K today, and after doing 8K yesterday it went all right. My legs actually felt a bit better than yesterday, but I was slower, at 6:35/km on average today. I was annoyed that I was so slow, but despite pushing up the incline at the end, with HR 160, I just couldn't go any faster. It's frustrating to start over, and it feels like all that spinning I did was for nothing. I know it'd be worse if I hadn't done the spinning, but it doesn't FEEL that way. It just feels kinda crappy.

I had a tiny bit of soreness yesterday afternoon upon prolonged sitting (1.5 hr coffee with Sarah); this morning there is some soreness in hammies and glutes. Maybe some of the weird soreness. Maybe not. Hard to tell.

Total for today: 6K in 39:32 with ave HR 153, for 6:35/km. 

8K!

It feels lame to be excited about making it 8K, but I am, and it's not lame, so I am going to celebrate it anyway. Yesterday I took a rest day; I was pretty sore after Saturday's 6K. Just the normal DOMS mind you, nothing else - no weird soreness - but I was even still a bit sore this morning when I woke up. I stretched a bit before getting out of my warm, comfy bed, and I could feel the muscles whining a bit, but knew it was nothing serious so didn't worry.

I lazed around a bit, enjoying the holiday morning (kids are old enough to entertain themselves, more or less, with some minor intervention for fights), and then got dressed to go racewalk. It is really warm here right now for January, not that I'm complaining! It was 40F (4C) when I went out at about 9:30am, and calm and partly cloudy. I took the dog and started walking. My toe whined for about the first km as usual, but then settled in and didn't bother me much. My legs felt great for the first 3km, and then my layoff and lack of RW fitness took its toll and I started to hurt a bit. It wasn't bad, though, and definitely not a death march, for which I was grateful. Just garden-variety heavy legs from disuse. I still made it the 8K in decent time (for me right now).

Total: 8K in 51:32 for 6:26/km with ave HR 151. My HR was pretty high going up the slight incline at the end; I'm out of shape :(. But that will change.

elliptical; 6K

Yesterday: 40 min elliptical.

Today: Jim said I should do another 6K. I think if the last one hadn't been so tough he'd have suggested 8K, but 6K it was, and that was fine. Today went much better than Thursday! Since it's Saturday and I had the luxury of waiting until the sun was up to walk, that's what I did. It was still cold out, though, and since it had snowed a little/freezing rain last night, the roads were quite slick with black ice in many spots, particularly on my street and some of the smaller streets. It did slow me down a little in places, as there's absolutely no toe push possible on ice. However, most of my route was fairly ice-free, though I had to walk on the outside edge of the sidewalk in Liberty Park.

My legs felt a lot better today; my shins are still a bit sore, and my hamstrings are complaining a little about Wednesday's and Thursday's workouts, but not enough to be a problem. Overall, I felt decent today and though I pushed a little to do it, I was able to maintain a 6:30/km pace on average. I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that that used to be slow for me. Right now it is what it is. I'm coming back from a lot of stuff and I have to accept it and be patient with it. On the bright side, Sugar (our dog) is so happy to be out walking again :). She was socializing a lot with the other dogs en route, and it was nice to have her along. Oh, and I almost forgot - I ran into my RW buddies Nancy and Diane at Liberty Park and stopped for a chat. They were out with a new RWer, Carol, and it was just so nice to see them. We chatted about this and that and we are all really looking forward to going to the 15K in Riverside in May.

My toe is doing OK. It hurts a little when I walk and when I RW, but it's not severe. It definitely gets a bit annoyed from racewalking, but in my judgment not enough to justify continued time off.

Total: 6K in 39:02 for 6:30/km with ave HR 149. Garmin data here. 

6K

Today was a toughie. I am soooooooooo out of shape when it comes to racewalking. Obviously I'm in good cardiovascular shape with all the spinning I've been doing, but my RW muscles are out of condition, big-time. My shins were sore (so rookie!) this morning when I went out, and everything just felt heavy and flat. I was slow. I mostly managed not to get too down about this, realizing that it's just gonna be this way for a bit and I have to get through it and be kind to myself about it.

It was an average January morning, at -4C (25F) and calm and a bit foggy as we're having the rumblings of an inversion. Yay. Crappy air quality on the way. Oh well... winter... I'm doing my part by taking the bus instead of driving to work. Today I didn't get in my car at all, as I RW for exercise (did not drive to the gym) and then took the bus to work and back home. Loren picked up the kids from afterschool, but other than that, I don't think he drove either as he worked from home today.

Anyway...totals for the workout: 6K in a slow 40:20 for 6:43/km with ave HR 144. Slow and painful. But it's a start.

Garmin data here. 

Edited to add: toe is doing decently; still hurts but not any worse after RW and doesn't hurt a lot. Also, muscles may be sore but it's not the weird soreness. None of that :) for which I'm grateful.

3.5km racewalking

I have a cold now (thanks to my adorable petri-dish-viral-incubator children) and with the exhaustion from the trip slept from 9pm to just before 7am. I got up and still figured I had time to do a quick RW before getting the kids off to school. They are old enough now that they do most of the preparations themselves but still need a little supervision.

I wasn't sure that RW was a great idea because of feeling sick, but decided that I could always quit if it was too bad. It felt good, actually, except for stopping to hack and cough about halfway through :). My legs felt fine for the 3.5 km, and my toe hurt for the first km (maybe a 2 out of 10 pain-wise) but then settled down and didn't bother me much.

Total: 3.5km in 22:43 for 6:29/km with ave HR 148. Garmin data here. 

If I feel good later, might go to the gym for some elliptical. If not, I will rest.

Very difficult week

The last week has been ridiculously hard. I am not going into the details here; suffice it to say that my father-in-law died last Tuesday, and we had to suddenly pick up and go to Bakersfield, CA, where he lived. My husband is the executor of his estate, which is a difficult job, especially in this case.

I did manage to exercise. Some. I didn't eat too much, which is amazing. I actually appear to have lost a little weight, which is good.

Wednesday - prepping for trip. No time to exercise.

Thursday - driving all day. No workout.

Friday - elliptical 45 min at a gym in Bakersfield.

Saturday - elliptical 40 min and 20 min RW on treadmill at said gym. Toe was OK with that. I hate the treadmill but got Loren to walk on an adjacent treadmill so that was good.

Sunday - elliptical 45 min at gym.

Monday - driving all day. No workout.

Today - back in Salt Lake; went to the gym and did Kit's 6am spinning class. It was good, but I'm very, very tired now. Hopefully more sleep tonight.

***

Injury update: my toe is improving. It doesn't hurt as much for casual walking, though I still have a slight limp. Putting on socks is no longer painful as long as I'm careful. After all day on my feet, it still swells and is uncomfortable, but at least it's not hurting all the time. I can racewalk limited amounts and it does all right. Now that it's been 7 weeks, I might try racewalking a bit longer distances, though my muscles will object. I wish I could have racewalked this week, but it just wasn't in the cards with the location of our hotel and all the family business that had to be taken care of.

***

Here's a photo of Loren's dad which I really like, from the early 70s (I think). He died peacefully in his sleep at home, which we were all grateful for. Cause of death was heart disease/chronic bronchitis officially, but emphysema was his companion for the last few years. Yes, he was a long-time smoker. If you are reading this and you smoke, please do yourself a favor and quit.

elliptical; 6K

Mood: stinky :(. However, I am working on it. Exercise is saving my bacon, as I wake up feeling big-time blah, and after a workout I feel decent. Then the afternoon slump, which can be partially ameliorated by a good latte :) whether homemade or from a coffee shop.

Yesterday: 1 hr elliptical because I was 10 min late for spinning. Hard to wake up early after a 4-day weekend! SO nice to have that 4-day weekend after 10 days straight of going in to work.

Today: I intended to spin, but didn't want to get out of bed, and as I was lying there, the thought occurred to me, "Hey, I could probably racewalk around Liberty Park". So I did...it was still pitch black out (gotta love winter, but at least it was relatively warm for January at 30F (-2C)). The dog was ecstatic as she hasn't gotten much exercise since I broke my toe (no one else walks her...sigh...), and though my legs were tired and heavy the whole time and felt like cement, I did OK, doing 6:35/km for the 6K with ave HR 142. Time 39:28. My toe was sore-ish but not too bad; felt better after about 3km.

OK...off to work, coffee in hand :)!

7.77km :)

Look what I did! :)

7.77km on the Jordan River Parkway with Sarah. Sarah does Galloway run:walk, so I did 2 min racewalk: 1 min walk with her for the distance. She was doing 9 miles total; I met her after she did 4.1 miles, so the 7.77km was the remaining 4.9 miles she had to do. I figured my toe would hold up, and it did. It was really fine until about 6K when it started to be more painful, but it never got terrible. I was glad I could be out there, even though I felt like I was walking through sludge, and felt like a big uncoordinated oaf.

Then Sarah took me for a latte (skinny mocha). Yum! I'm lucky to have a friend like her :).

Spinning with Jen

Last night we went with some friends from China to dinner at a good restaurant, and took our kids as well. It was the first time we'd taken them to a very fine restaurant, and they rewarded us with good behavior. In fact, we were there eating for three hours, and I was amazed at how good they were. They enjoyed the experience as much as we did, I think.

Our friends hadn't had any very good Western-style food, I don't think, and that's what precipitated our visit. I was talking with my co-worker JingXia, and she was saying that most of the restaurants they'd eaten at weren't very good. When I quizzed her on what American food she'd tried, she said "Chili's, Applebee's, Ruby River" and continued listing some chain restaurants. (Amusing anecdote here: when quizzed if they had tried Mexican food, they said "Yes! Taco Bell!" This was immediately followed by detailed explanations about why Taco Bell does not even remotely count as Mexican food). I explained to JingXia that she just needed to try some very GOOD Western-style restaurants, and that then they would probably like the food. She seemed excited to try some new restaurants, and the other co-workers in the lab quickly chimed in with their own favorites and generated a big list for her. We also agreed to make a reservation at Log Haven in Millcreek Canyon for last night, and bring our families so that we could all try a lot of different dishes (JingXia is married and has a daughter Grace's age).

Needless to say, after consuming a good amount of fine food last night, I felt like spinning was a must this morning. I was also curious who the instructor would be, because Jen has been teaching a lot with Kit and Jeannie on vacation, and Jen had said yesterday that she was not teaching today. Imagine my surprise when I walked in to class and Jen was teaching! I said, "What are you doing here?" and she said, "Yeah, I know - I'm just as surprised as you are!". But I was glad to see her because she's a great instructor, and we had a very good workout combining flat road with accelerations and some climbs in between. My ave HR was 143, but I spent some good interval time in the upper 150s.

Later today I think I may try some walking/racewalking with my friend Sarah. We'll see what happens...

New Year's Revolution "Run"; Spinning

Yesterday: Guess what? I walked/racewalked 5.3km (12 laps of the Olympic Oval @442m each) and my toe was tolerable. Yes, it hurt a bit. Yes, I am still limping a bit (not a lot but enough that Nancy could tell which foot it was). But...I was able to get out there and do it. I did a few moderate pace laps (felt hard, but were not actually fast) as well as some nice and easy slower laps with Diane and Nancy. Yeah, and it took me 42 minutes to do it...sigh... but hey, at least I was out there. Ave HR only 127 so obviously not up to using RW as real exercise just yet; some laps it was high enough but I had to be careful of my toe and take it easy on other laps. Didn't want to overdo and make things worse.

Calvin came with me and did 13 laps (fast! He's a good little runner!) and we met my friend Sarah and her daughter Alle there. Post-race, we enjoyed brunch at the Dodo, always a favorite. I had a really good veggie omelet and a coffee. Lots of coffee :). Good coffee :) :) :).

Today: Spinning with Jen; it was a "recovery" workout as Jen taught a monster 90-min class yesterday (which I had to miss to go to the race...but that was OK!). I pushed it a bit harder than she said this morning so I'd get a good workout in, and that was excellent. My mood is a lot better today and I'm looking forward to training again in a few weeks (fingers crossed!). 

After spinning, I did some abs and some glute work for 10-15 min. I think I'll be feeling that tomorrow... but I MUST get back into shape and lift weights/do yoga/strength train again. It's time. I can feel that I need to be stronger. Let's hope I can stay motivated; provided I can keep my mood elevated enough I think I can. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Still here

Workouts ---

Sunday: rest day

Monday: Spinning with Jen, 1 hr class, nice and hard. It was a steady state workout, but I pushed it because I was in the mood for a good hard workout.

Tuesday: Spinning with Miguel, 1 hr class, amusing! Miguel has the largest collection of very very bad 60s and 70s covers that I have ever heard. They were so bad that they made me laugh. His class was also rather, um, interesting. He liked to spin very, very, very fast (i.e. he was going at probably 110rpm much of the class) in very low gears. Either that, or max the gear out climbing. I aimed for somewhere in between and actually got a great workout. He was a pretty funny guy, and I think he's the regular sub for spinning at the gym. People seemed to know him, at least.

Today: Spinning with Jen, 90 min class, but I got there 5 min late and the class was more like 85 min, so it wasn't quite that long. She had us do a good steady-state workout; the main set was 7 minute chunks divided into hard climb at 60-70 rpm and flat road at 100 rpm with 10-sec accelerations every minute on the flat road. The first one was 1 min climb, 6 min flat road; then 2 min climb, 5 min flat road - etc. until 7 min climb, then 7 min flat road. I tried to keep my heart rate low to mid 140s for the workout, like I would racewalking on an easy day. That worked out well.

***

Mood and other things: I'm definitely moderately depressed again. Sigh. It's not too awful, but it's certainly not the best. As a result, I'm continuing to struggle with my food intake, and am just feeling really tired all the time. The exercise is probably the only thing keeping me from feeling worse. I know I have a bit of seasonal affective disorder, so I got out my light again and am giving that a go. It's probably only natural to feel a bit down, as 1) it's winter (and has been bitterly cold the past couple days, setting off my Raynaud's phenomenon), 2) my toe still hurts and I still can't racewalk (though actually the toe is gradually improving - still hurts to put on socks, but not as much; still hurts to walk, but not as much), 3) work has been busy and family has been busy, making me more tired than usual.

Thankfully, I will have a 4-day weekend and will not have to come in to work at all, which I sorely need right now. In addition, the family obligations have tapered off. I'm glad, because I feel I just need to be at home reading and sleeping and just trying to recuperate.

Tailspin? (OR) Not. Giving. Up.

I'm not sure what to call this post.

Option A:

Tailspin?

I've had a bad couple of days in the food department, despite my resolution earlier in the week. The scale is ugly right now. Really ugly. I feel like I'm going to spinning class in vain. I can't out-exercise my fork...and I know this to be true...and I feel like giving up.

So hard. Have been working several hours a day even though it's "vacation" because a grad student who went out of town unintentionally dumped a LOT of work on me. Said grad student honestly didn't realize how much work it was going to be to continue the project. But I am stuck with it, and for the first time in memory, I had to work on Christmas Day for a rather lengthy period of time. I know it could be worse; doctors, nurses, police, etc. work lots more on holidays. But I usually don't.

Lots of family in town, which is fun but also more work. I have been doing lots and lots of cooking, cleaning, etc. I'm pretty tired, which lowers my food resistance. Add in the fact that there is a LOT LOT LOT of junk food around the house and it's just a nightmare. This too shall pass, but I need to get out alive. Feel like I'm in a tailspin.

Option B:

Not. Giving. Up.

What is my alternative? If I'd given up earlier in the month, this would be even worse and the scale would have an even higher number. Seems impossible, but must be true. Seriously, if I hadn't been trying to keep the weight and the appetite at bay (which I have...believe it or not!), I bet I could have gained 20 pounds in one month. It's ridiculous.

If I give up now, I know I will just be completely miserable. I don't ever want to go back to the way I used to live before I lost the weight. I'm not that person any more, but I also still have plenty of issues. It's confusing.

So....

I went spinning this morning. It was a great class, with Jen. I'm motivated to reset the food intake, and today is more relaxing, as everyone but me and Calvin is out skiing. I can't ski (broken toe) and don't want to unless it's cross-country, but of course they are downhill skiing. However, I have to go to work (again........whee.........), and we are all going out to dinner tonight, which presents its own fun set of challenges. I'm mentally prepared now, but by evening my willpower is usually depleted a bit. A nap might help. Relaxing WILL help. Calvin and I plan to chill and shop for books, and hang out and play games a bit. I am looking forward to a day with my boy :). (Wow, this paragraph is really disjointed stream-of-consciousness!). The point is that I really am NOT. GIVING. UP.

Today is a new day. Get ready. Reset. Go.

Spinning with Jen; rest day; Merry Christmas!

Wednesday: Spinning with Jen; the usual tough 90-min class.

For those new to spinning, I'll tell you a bit more about it. Basically, you ride a special stationary bike in the dark/dim light with music (preferably somewhat loud :)!) and an instructor. The room we use at our gym has space enough for probably 30 bikes, though the biggest class tends to be maybe 20-25 people. The spinning bikes are not your ordinary stationary bike. They have special pedals that you can clip in your cycling shoes, or on the flip side straps to snug your regular sneakers. The handlebars allow for multiple positions of your arms, to resemble a tri-bike or road bike. They also come with gears - you can move a lever to increase the resistance level on your bike to simulate hill climbs. In addition, our bikes have a small computer that tells you RPM, power output in watts/kcal burned (alternating on display), heart rate (if you have a compatible monitor; mine isn't so I just put my watch on the bike handlebars), and distance traveled. The key number really is watts (how hard you are working). The instructor has a microphone so she can be heard over the music, which she usually controls through an iPod or iPhone or other mp3 player. One more thing about a spin bike - you have to keep pedaling continuously - you can't coast like on a road bike, and they do not stop immediately like a regular stationary bike.

The thing I like about spinning is that it really pushes you to work much harder than you'd work on the elliptical or stationary bike. It's a great interval workout, and I am trying to stay in good shape while I'm out of racewalking, so it's perfect for that. Burns lots of calories, too :).

Yesterday's workout was typical. We warmed up for about 5 min just riding "flat road" which means lower resistance, and higher rpm - usually 90 to 100, depending on the instructor. Then we did some drills for left leg and right leg - basically using just the one leg to pedal. You can push down on a spin bike but you can also pull up, so you use glutes and hamstrings equally if you are paying attention. The instructors often do drills for that as well, though we didn't yesterday. However, they DO remind you to "push and pull" frequently.

After we warmed up, we did a little more flat road, and then started a 20 minute hill climb, gradually adding more and more resistance until we were struggling mightily to keep our RPM above 60. Some of the climb was in the saddle, and some out of the saddle (i.e. standing). That's another thing you can do on a spin bike that you don't do on an ordinary stationary bike - standing rather than sitting for climbing or just at lower resistance for "running" or "jogging". It simulates standing on a road bike for an extra push, and it's a bit tougher and usually ups your heart rate quite a bit more. After our climb, we recovered briefly and then did five 40sec/20sec intervals of flat road/very fast RPM (110 or more). That will also get your heart rate up in a hurry! After a brief recovery, we repeated the climb, this time with a bit more work out of the saddle for extra challenge (by this point our legs are toast!!!) and then did the 40/20s again. Did I mention that Jen's class is really tough? It was good though. After the last set of 40/20s, we cooled down on a flat road for a while, and then stretched on the bike (arms, upper body) and off the bike (legs).

Garmin data here. 

Today: Merry Christmas! The gym is closed, and so no workout for me today. I might take the dog for a walk in the neighborhood, slowly, and not very far. My toe is still quite painful if I walk too much or stand a long time. Also, we got fresh snow last night! It's beautiful outside, but maybe not conducive to lots of walking.

Spinning; new x-ray

Today: Spinning with Jeannie. We did a modified 12 days of Christmas workout with 30 sec for each thing, and with each of the 11 people in the class picking one exercise. It was actually a quite challenging workout, surprisingly. At least it was only an hour...tomorrow is the 90-min spinning class with Jen, always sure to turn my legs to Jell-O.

Worked all day and then had a 4:15 pm appointment for an x-ray of my toe. The new x-ray shows that it is healing nicely on the medial side, with not much healing visible yet on the lateral side. But the P.A. thought it looked fine and that it should be feeling much better in 4 weeks or so. I told her it was still quite painful and she said that toes are like that - very painful. They can take a long time (several months or more) to stop hurting. That's a bit discouraging since it's been just one month today; however, she did think that it's entirely possible that mine could be feeling better in another month and that I might be up for racewalking then. I hope so.

Meanwhile, spinning...and more spinning.

refocusing

Friday: 12 Days of Christmas class. Great workout. Pretty tough, as it's a 90-min class, but I tried to keep it not as intense and focus a bit more on endurance. Ave HR 141, so good for an endurance ride. Garmin data here.  Calvin was the "elf" for our class and passed out door prizes - really fun. He a had a good time trying out the spin bike too. Set on the lowest seat height, he could reach the pedals and he discovered he could even read a Garfield comic book while spinning :). He wore a Santa hat, and it was pretty cute. I forgot to take his picture, though, sorry.

Saturday & Sunday: 30 min elliptical each day. On Saturday I took the dog for a brisk walk, trying a bit to racewalk. Yeah, right. Still too painful, and I'm still limping. My toe does feel better, but I'm not ready for that yet. Putting on socks isn't as hard as it was, and it's a bit less painful to walk, though I'm not going to convince anyone that I'm not limping, if they are looking closely. Saturday was a bit of a food disaster, followed by remorse on Sunday, and very good eating behavior. I am renewed in my determination to fight this and not to sit by and passively allow more weight gain. I know this is a hard time to watch my weight, but I've done it before, and I can do it again.

Monday: Spinning with Jen; interval workout. It was a good hard one. Seriously - HR up in the upper 150s-low 160s for a good bit. Kept telling myself I'm training to keep my cardiovascular system strong, so that when I can racewalk again it won't be so dismal getting fit again. I know it'll still be hard as I'll lose most of my racewalking-specific fitness, but I'm trying not to think about that. Just staying as fit as possible while I wait to heal. Garmin data here. 

Spinning

Today: Spinning - Jeannie's class. It was decent. I took it a bit easy after yesterday's tough class with Jen, and before tomorrow's 12 Days of Christmas class with Kit.

Mood: not been good. Stupid seasonal affective thing bothering me? Or just the seasonal busyness? Been a bit anxious/depressed. Some situational stuff may be contributing; i.e. not being able to RW, some other personal stuff. I've been worse, but I've been better too. Maybe time to drag out the blue light again. Also need to eat better. Keep saying that but hard to do right now for some reason. I know I need to, though, for my mood. A bit of a conundrum.

Toe: still sore.

Garmin data here. 

catching up again

Sorry...'tis the season. I'm trying NOT to be too busy, but it's catching up to me anyway.

Sunday: rest day.

Monday: woke up late but still managed 30 min elliptical.

Tuesday: 1 hr spin class with Kit; good endurance ride.

Wednesday: 90 min spin class with Jen; pushed *really* hard. Tough climb with at least 10 min of HR>160. Garmin data here.  Though I pushed very hard, and my legs were tired later, there was no weird soreness. As for fatigue, yeah, I have that, but I suspect most of it is seasonal doing-too-much rather than the mystery illness.

Tomorrow: I plan to go spinning again but not push too hard.

Friday: Spinning is the 12 days of Christmas class, which I'm looking forward to a lot. Calvin has volunteered to be an "elf" for the class, handing out door prizes, etc. He will have to get up early to go with me (class starts at 5:30 am, since it's a 90 min class) but he's excited to do it.

***

Toe update: still hurts to put on socks and to walk. Hurts a lot if I'm on my feet too much, and then I have to ice it and take ibuprofen or naproxen. Wheeee. I'm getting another x-ray on Tuesday. I can't tell that it's improved at all.

Enjoyable day

Started out the day with a 7-8am spinning class, and got my HR about as high as I've ever seen it spinning. We did about a 30-min warm-up (haha...more like a 5 min warmup and 25 min workout!) and then a 20-min time trial. Ouch! The time trial is pretty tough. 5 min "flat road", 80-90rpm but with your power output reasonably high. I started with my HR about 150, because I figured that was a good place to start for a hard 20 min. Then, we had a 2 min "run" (standing, fast pedaling), which always gets my HR up, followed by a 2 min climb (increase resistance, sitting), and then a 1 min standing climb. Then, repeat the whole thing. On the last 1 min climb, my HR pegged at 168. Granted, it gets higher racewalking (I've seen it as high as 180 in a 5K, at the end of the race), but still...yeah...hard effort for cycling. Notes to self about the time trial: bike #26, ave rpm 79, ave power 211 watts, distance 7.8. Not sure I'll be able to get that same bike again, and they are quite different, but at least that is something. The instructor plans to do the time trial again in a month to see if we've improved. Oh yay!

After the spin class I went home for a quick shower and change, and then took Calvin with me to breakfast with my friend Kelly. She's leaving for California for a couple months before moving to Idaho for a job. I'll miss her a lot, so we had to do breakfast one last time. Of course, she got Eggs Benedict, her favorite :).

Then Calvin and I did a bit of shopping for ingredients for our holiday baking frenzy today. It was pretty fun --- and then we did our baking! We made a couple batches of caramels, which need to be chocolate dipped sometime soon (tomorrow???), and also some caramel nut popcorn. We are still going to make some peanut butter balls coated in chocolate ("buckhorns"), and some white chocolate espresso macadamia nut bark. We also played Monopoly for a little while, and Calvin totally killed me! He did really well; for a while it was neck-and-neck but then he pulled ahead. Good game. Finally, we had a couple from church over for dinner; she plays the cello, so after dinner she and I played some music together. After they left, I played my clarinet and the piano for a little to scratch the music itch a bit more.

It was a good day :).

My toe is quite sore after the baking frenzy, and I did ice it, but...well...yeah, probably shouldn't be on it so much. Oh well. It is still very tender to the touch, and putting on socks, pants, standing too long, and walking hurt. Mostly just annoying, but am trying not to think about how much longer it's going to be that I can't racewalk. On the flip side, I get more rest to hopefully make the mystery illness go away for good. Yesterday at Kelly's graduation I was sitting a lot (driving, the ceremony, more driving, then dinner) and it barely bothered me at all :).

Friday spinning

Today was spinning with Kit. We got a little preview of her "12 Days of Christmas" spinning class. Yes, you read that correctly. She does a class where each day is represented by a different spinning exercise: 30 sec fast cadence, 1 min job, 1 min of 5 sec jumps, etc. You repeat them just as in the song: 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 4, 3, 2, 1 etc. She's going to have door prizes and everything, coming next Friday. Should be fun!

Today was a good workout, and then I went to work briefly; got to leave early to attend my friend Kelly's graduation from physical therapy school.

Garmin data here. 

Wednesday spinning. Thursday spinning.

Wednesday: Spinning with Jen - 90 min class. It was hard, but I felt much better after the workout than I did last week. No weird soreness and other than being fatigued for part of the day, I was fine. I felt pretty recovered today and went spinning again.

Garmin data here. 

Today: Spinning with Jeannie - regular 60 min class. Only 2 people came, me and a guy named John, in his late 50s or early 60s? I didn't mind, as we chatted it up while we sweated (I did get a good workout, really!) and for my part I got to share a bit about neuroscience research and racewalking.

Garmin data here.

***

Toe update: Still sore. Still bruised a bit. Hurts to put on socks, walk (sometimes if I forget to limp and/or hit it wrong), and gets swollen after a day on my feet. Definitely not ready for racewalking yet, not that I expected it to be.

more spinning

I felt a bit better today. I had less fatigue and not much muscle pain, and though spinning was a bit easier, it was still a great workout and could have made me tired, but didn't :). Seriously, spinning is good because it pushes me a bit more than just elliptical or riding stationary bike on my own, and yet feels easier because I'm just following the instructor's directions and there's peer pressure to do it and not quit if I feel tired. It's mentally easier, and physically harder, which is great. I was pleased to be able to do it today.

Tomorrow is Jen's killer 90-min spin class. It starts at 5:30am (gulp!). I'd better get to bed soon if I'm going to be on time. I was actually on time to Kit's class today - wow! That was nice. Jen's class is super crowded, so if I want a decent bike I do need to try to be on time... that's incentive anyway. We'll see if I make it.

In other news, yeah, my toe still hurts. No, I can't walk yet.

Garmin data here from today's class.

spinning

Went for a spin this morning. I thought I was doing well to get there at 6:03am, but I was the last person to show up (for the 6am class), and I grabbed a bike without straps for the left foot :(. I didn't want to go get another one, so I just dealt with it. The workout went fine anyway; it was Jen (the MW instructor), who gives a seriously kick-butt class. Average HR, including the cool-down and stretch and a few minutes after (forgot to turn off watch) was 141. Got my HR up to 160 on several intervals, and it was in upper 150s on a lot of the climbs.

The bad news is that I felt unusually fatigued after; some brain fog and lots of just plain tiredness. I'm not sure what's up with all that. I did nap a long time yesterday but felt like I slept OK last night anyway. I am worried it's a bit of the mystery illness. I don't have very sore muscles, but I haven't been sitting much this morning at work. I will sit a lot this afternoon, so we'll see how that is.

The thing that I really like about spinning is how I can just turn off my mind and just let my body work hard, and let the instructor push me rather than pushing myself. I don't know how to explain it, but it's therapeutic. Oddly, I don't get bored, between the music and the intervals. Plus, when you sweat that much you know you got a good workout. I needed it this morning.

My toe is still very tender. It still hurts to walk, and it hurts a lot if I touch or move it the wrong way. I was realizing today that it's only been two weeks since I broke it. Ugh. 6 more weeks, probably. Well, one day at a time.

Garmin data here. 

one foot in front of the other

These days, it's just one foot in front of the other. Try to get some good exercise. Go to work. Limp around, because my toe is still painful for ordinary walking. Try not to dwell on that misfortune. Focus on eating as well as I can given the circumstances, reminding myself that self-care is a good gift that will pay dividends. Then, forgetting. Overindulging, and re-remembering.

Along the way, some good insights happen. This was a really musical week; I spent a lot of time arranging a piece for SATB quartet with a friend from church, and then rehearsing and performing it. In addition, there was working on other choir pieces, giving piano lessons to the kids, practicing my clarinet for next week's choir piece, and today after church, kids' and adult choir rehearsal (with me and my broken toe squeezed into small organ shoes, sight-reading a nifty seasonal arrangement), and finally women's ensemble. Oh, and Friday night Loren and my mom and I went to the symphony to hear Beethoven's Ninth, which was very well done. I'm loving the music, which is my insight of the week, along with the need for some silent time, encouraged by our pastor in today's sermon.

I'm also trying to do a little reading while I cross-train. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I only managed about 30 min elliptical each day, as my body was fatigued. I'm not sure if it's the mystery illness, as I've had some leg soreness that seems akin to the weird soreness (especially after Wednesday's killer 90-min spin session), or maybe the seasonal busyness, but I crashed and needed a nap and some alone time today. That brings me back to the reading. I'm reading a book of short stories (fiction), a book about introversion (non-fiction), and a couple other things. I'm one to read as many books as possible at the same time.

And, I am thinking to take a break from most social media for a bit; the holiday season is really busy, and I want to pare down so that I can enjoy the things that matter most. I'll keep blogging, as it's more for me than for anyone else. Who knew that I would ever think writing is therapeutic (I generally dislike writing and avoid it whenever possible; part of the reason I'm in molecular biology is that I wanted a career in which writing wasn't necessary)? But a little blogging seems good for the soul, or something like that.

This week: spin class tomorrow, I think. Then, whatever my body allows. It's a balancing act, learning all over to care for myself, my family, and do my work. As seasons in life change, I must adapt, and figure out how to cope with the curve balls I've been thrown, whether it's a mystery illness, a broken toe, or something much more difficult.

My apologies for the rambling. It's good to get things out and explore them in writing.

spinning spinning spinning

The hardest spinning class at the gym is Wednesday mornings, 5:30-7. Yup, 90 minutes of intense spinning with the most challenging instructor. I did get out of bed early and made it to the gym by about 5:35 (oops...a bit late) for this morning's insanity. And I made it through the whole class, without toe pain. Whew. Spinning seems to agree with the toe. By the time I was done, my shirt was soaking wet with sweat, so at least I know I was working hard; that, and my HR monitor showed 160 for a good portion of the "hill" climbing that we did. 

Garmin data here. Nice interval workout.

lots of cross-training ahead

So, I finally got my toe x-rayed. I just wanted to be sure that there wasn't anything else going on in the joint, and also wanted to know that there wasn't any displacement or other problems. And while it IS broken, and quite thoroughly, it's going to heal just fine in 6-10 weeks, or so they say.

Meanwhile, I'm cross-training a lot. I did elliptical yesterday and today I got daring and tried a spinning class for the first time since I broke it. That actually went fine, and I was able to do pretty much everything pain-free. So I'll be making good friends with the spin bike and the elliptical for the next few weeks.

I plan to use some of the extra time I'll have to do a bit more music stuff. I've been arranging a carol for small ensemble for church for Advent, and also am thinking to get my clarinet out and dust it off for a couple things for church and maybe for playing with a string quartet.