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October 16, 2006
Back on the Wagon
After falling off the wagon this weekend I'm back on today...and for the rest of the week...I hope. :)
I won't lie though. My 4:45 am wake up call was rough this morning. Ugh. I'm a morning person no doubt but as it gets colder and darker the bed seems like a much better option than getting up. Better step up though - it's only going to get worse.
Anyway, I got my lazy butt up and to the pool for the masters swim practice this morning. When I let Roxy out before I left I saw on our thermometer that it was 26 degrees. Fun times. I blasted my heat the whole drive down to Pitt but I was still freezing when I showed up in the locker room. I knew getting in the pool was going to be bad juju so I literally put my junk down and ran across the pool deck straight into the pool. From now until about June this is probably going to be my preferred method of pool entry. No more slinking down the side of the pool one inch at a time.
AM Pool Workout:
3500 meters total (900 meters warmup, 200 meters cooldown)
6x400 meters on 7:30 w/the odd repeats as 100 distance for stroke, 100 breathe on 3, 100 distance for stroke and 100 breathe on 3 and the even repeats hard. I swam my 3 hard ones in 6:29, 6:19 and 6:14. I felt good. I love long course pool, long repeat Mondays, although I think I may be the only one. :)
Work was work. Three people called off today. That equals lots more work for me. I survived though. Better to be busy than unemployed.
Next up my run. I was looking forward to it all day. It was about 55 degrees when I finally got to the trail at about 6 pm, which we all know it just about the perfect running temperature. I was supposed to run 65 minutes in zones 1-3 which is my favorite type of run because it's not running hard but you can go a little and not worry about the heart rate monitor throwing a fit for getting the heart rate up too high.
I don't know what to say about my running. I've had two of the best runs I've had in years (literally) this past Thursday and then today. I just felt so dang good and fit and smooth and wow - it's hard to describe. I think my running fitness is finally starting to turn around a little and because I'm not running a lot I don't feel overly tired. I started around 7:30 pace but was running 6:50-7 minute pace after about 4 miles and just felt like a million bucks. And my HR was in the high 160s, low 170s which is just fine. I haven't been able to do this type of running since college and in college I was so tired all the time from high mileage that I rarely felt this good. The weather definitely has something to do with it and I had some seriously good tunes playing on my iPod which never hurts. Either it feels so good to feel so good and alive and well.
Anyway, I'm eating ice cream now even though it's seriously about 10 degrees in our house and I have close to 4 layers of clothing on. Old house = poor insulation = one cold triathlete wishing the dog would make herself useful and lay on my feet to warm them up. Humpf. :)
Hope everyone has a great night!
Posted by beth at October 16, 2006 8:11 PM
Comments
i have never been a morning person... more so in the cold... i envy your determination...
Posted by: Kranky C Dale at October 17, 2006 8:16 AM
Beth, recently some good juju is definitely going around: Alison ran a mile that made her enthused like I have not read in a while; you are RUNNING, feeling like a million bucks; And how about O's marathon? Haven't read Michelle's (yet) but I take Alison's word for it. And there's more: others seem to be recovering; a major not to be missed appointment coming up this weekend in Chicago for Ryan, which no matter what happens will be the reckoning of some truly impressive training. Not to mention all those neo-moms and dads running with some new, beautiful responsibilities... And for my part I managed to run a shoeless 38:34 last Sunday on a rather difficult 10K in the heart of Rome. I haven't run 38:34 since I was in college... that was more than 20 years ago..
What to say: let's hope this juju spreads even more! Take care :)
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at October 18, 2006 8:14 AM