Change of Pace

I wouldn't say I'm exactly healthy yet, but slowly, slowly I'm getting there. It kind of sucks that this is technically supposed to be the end of the second week of my Boston training schedule, since I barely topped 30 miles this week and spent last week miserable in bed running exactly zero miles. No way around it though what with being sick, so I can only try to be as sensible as possible as I build myself back up.

If my heart rate is to be believed, I really am on the mend. I forced myself to stay well above 9 minute pace, limited my runs to a 6.3 mile loop and only ran five days.

Tuesday's run at 9:20 pace gave me an average heart rate of 167 beats a minute.
Friday's run was at 9:38 pace and I had an average h.r. of 163 beats a minute.
Yesterday I sped up a little to 9:15 pace, but my h.r. was down to a 154 average.
And today, at 9:35 pace, my heart rate was down to an average of 147 bpm!

I'll aim to run six days next week and stretch out my runs by a mile or two. And I desperately hope this phlegmy coughing will start to subside, because it's really, really starting to get very old.

At least the weather is fairly mild. Thursday was pretty brutal at 11 windy degrees (I do realize that's practically balmy for some of you), so I felt justified in sparing myself that experience, but otherwise it's hasn't been too cold. The new year's resoluters were out in full force in the park today, but I'm guessing not too many of them were out there Thursday either.

Oh, and last but not least, I don't have to work overnights anymore! I still have the schedule of a waitress working until midnight straight through the weekend, but still, not having to be a vampire two days a week will have to be good for my overall state of well-being.