Tuesday 18 May

Hmmmm ... I think I cross-trained. I know I went to the gym. I'm sure I must have run a little bit.

Thursday 20 May

Tired, still sick and cranky. I gave myself 20 minutes to run. And look what I made!

Minutes        Speed km/hr

0-8.5              8.5 

8.5 - 18.5      9.5

18.5 - 20       8.5

2.97km. Av speed 9.

Yes that's right. 10 minutes at 9.5 km/hr. And it was gooood. Fast, but totally doable and I could have easily done to the end. I'm excited because I accidentalyl hit 9.5 instead of 9, and I even thought that was pushing it. I'm faster than I think.

Then there was 15 hard elliptical minutes, and a five minute run:

Minutes        Speed km/hr

0-1                 12

1-2                  8

3-5                  10

12 was impossible. So, so hard. I felt like a doofus.

Monday 17 May

Minutes   Speed (km/hr)

0-5             8

5-10           8.5

10-15         8

15-25         8.5

25              30

Av sp: ?? Forgot to check. 4.10 km (hmmmm). HR still on blink, but high-ish.

Felt slow at 8km/hr, but the end of the 10 minutes at 8.5km/hr tiiiired me. Tired at the end, but felt I could do 5 minute sections considtently over 5km.

Now where was I up to? I'll try to reconstruct.

We last left our hero on Tuesday 4 May.

Wednesday was a welcome rest day to rest the old glut med.

Thursday 6 May
A cross-training day, including two (?) 15 minute runs at about 8km/hr. Anyway, it was a 500 cal burn. There was some reason that it was hard to make myself go but I can't remember.

Friday 7 May
A run at a new gym. Very proud of myself for making it after a mammoth shopping effort. (I was home sick. But I got better and then bored).

Minutes     Speed       Incline
0-10          8km/hr      0
10-20        8.5            0
20-25        8               0
25-30        8.5            0

Good strong run, despite sore legs at the beginning.

  


And then: a long rest. Slack weekend. Nothing Monday. On Tuesday I was suffering a post-over-solarium painful burn.

But the four days off were great. My glute med really improved, and when I hopped back on the tready on Wednesday my legs felt fresher than they had in a long time. No ankle tendon strain, no calf tightness, and overall a really, really enjoyable run, both physically and mentally.

Wednesday 12 May
Minutes     Speed       Incline
0-10          8km/hr      0
10-20        8.5            0
20-25        8               0
25-30        8.5            0

Followed it with 10 minutes of hard work on the elliptical.


Friday 14 May
Yesterday was a rest - and I don't begrudge it because my gltue med is holding up well.
Today I did a cross-training session, thinking that I will run outside on the weekend. I included 15 minutes of runnign at 8.5km/hr in the middle of a 45 minute session, which felt good and strong. I'll be including more 8.5km/hr blcoks in my 30 minute or 5km runs.  

Having only managed two runs last week, which I only just realised (so that's the point of a training log!) I am less surprised at my deconditioning which was painfully evident this morning. I had kinda forgotten just how bad last week was. 

Again, my stupid lack of exercise on Friday set me up for a no-sweat weekend. I already knew Saturday was out, my schedule being chockers, and Sun proved similar. 

Monday 3 May 2010

On Monday night I returned to the gym. 15 minutes into my run the following things had happened:

• I removed my HRM. It was at 00 again and I have finally noticed the empty battery it's showing me. 
• Obviously the HRM chest strap had been providing some support to the girls, because once it was gone the extra bounciness was apparent. I knew my bra straps had slipped, but the lack of chest elastic was a bit too much. It didn't hurt, but seeing myself bouncing along at an alarming level of bounce in the glass in front of the tready was too disconcerting.

So I hopped off, peed, wrenched up the bra straps and hopped on the elliptical. I did 15 hard minutes, and then 15 hard minutes on the ski-type machine. Feeling I could really pound it home, and also feeling the weight of guilt that an alcohol-sodden weekend can inspire, I ran another 15 minutes. Total calori burn was probably about 1000 based on previous similar workouts, so even though my 30 minute run was not continuous, it was at least interspliced with another 30 minutes of heart-thumping work, and this was in fact my longest work out in a while (meaning that often when I'm at the gym for 60 minutes that's 40 minutes of working out and 20 minutes of misc/assorted). 

This morning: back to it. But softly. I didn't want to push myself, knowing I'd been a bit slack (but not really realising just how slack). 

In other, crappy news my tendinopathy of the glute med is back on the LHS. I can feel it and it hurts. I did my exercises again this morning for the first time in ages and will be faithfully performing them daily.

Tuesday 4 May 2010

30 minutes at 8km/hr, 0% (after 5 minute warm up). Then, because I had time, 1km at 8.5% (probably a 30 second break in between the two sessions. Kinda like stopping at the lights outside - it totally counts as one run, ok?).

Yes slack. It was harder than it should have been given where I was at two weeks ago, but still not too awful. And I did enjoy it so tick for that. No HR or accurate cals because of battery-lifeless HRM, but presumably around 480 cals for the first 30 minutes and about 100 for the last k (7 minutes).