Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Happy to be running

Today I wanted to try 5 min run/1 min walks to see how it felt and if it would speed me up. It didn't go so well. I was exhausted from the get-go. So 3 miles with half-mile runs at a faster pace followed by 1 min walks was harder than I expected, but I made it. It turned into an interval workout of sorts.

The good news I was running, period. There was an 8-year stretch when I couldn't run because of pain. And now I can (thanks to ChiRunning). Everything else is gravy. Plus it was it was 70 degrees and sunny. I was able to work on my form which felt pretty good, but I would have liked to have relaxed more (a big component of CR), but when you can barely breathe and your heart is racing at 175 bpm, it makes it tough to relax. Anyone know a cardiologist who specializes in heart rates that spike in the first 90 seconds of running and don't come back down (even on a slow mile)?

The other good part of today's effort -- the excellent massage I had after the run. I am going to start scheduling all my massages after a hard workout. My calves have been tight since this weekend (biking seems to have aggravated them), but the massage therapist worked good and hard on them. She thinks it might be a lot of lactic acid. So more water -- and less Diet Coke, plus ice and heat after running and we'll see how the calves react to that.

I had my third meeting with a personal trainer today. I'm on my own from here. It's been hard enough to find time for four runs a week, and now I am trying to fit in 4 30-minute weight training sessions set up by a personal trainer. We'll see.

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