Tuesday Recap and Wednesday Forecast

I only had time for the treadmill work yesterday.  No spinning.

I warmed up for 10 minutes, building from a brisk walk to a light jog over the course of 12 minutes, including some backwards jogs and butt kicks.  You know, I think warming up is one of my least favorite activities.  I don't like the process of working out the kinks, getting the muscles warmed up and the heart rate elevated.  It's uncomfortable.  I don't mind it once I'm revved up, but the revving up itself is not enjoyable.  Its necessary though.  Long gone are the days when I could just launch myself into the exercise.  I know now that it was never wise to skip the warm ups even back when I was young and spry, and however dumb it might have been, my body would at least allow it.  Now?  Not a chance.

Once warmed up, the 10 cycles of 220 "sprints" followed by a slow 220 recovery interval were pretty easy.  I'd have rather run these on a track, but the treadmill served the purpose.  I set the fast 220s at anywhere from 9.0 to 9.5 on the speed setting, which equates to a 6:40 to 6:20 per mile pace.  I need to be able to sustain 6:45 for 3.1 to break 21 minutes.  10x220 is only 2.5 miles, but I got the feeling I could have made at least that distance at 9.0 or better even without the rest breaks.  I've got a tempo run planned for Thursday, but I might replace that with a best effort 5K just to see where I stand.

My back feels fine when I'm walking, standing...even running.  It's when I've been sitting for a few minutes that it stiffens up and hurts when I move again.  I'm nervous about doing any core exercises too until the spasms (now light) are gone.  So, I begged off on the sit up workout last night that I'd planned with Quin.  At least I didn't just "forget."

Today is just a base run of 45-60 minutes at an 8:00 per mile pace.  It's warm again today already, so I'll be trying to gauge my mood later to decide whether to run it indoors on the treadmill at lunchtime or to wait until the cooler evening to follow a route through Bressi Ranch.  If I go out in the evening, that'll give me the opportunity for a separate lunchtime workout, which I'll use for cross training and strength training...maybe 30 minutes in the pool followed by 45 minutes on the upper body weights.

Update...later the same day:
I ran inside on the treadmill.  I probably could have run outside.  It's a bit warm but overcast here on the coast.  I just wimped out and decided to watch "Predator" on the screen while doing what I thought would be a base run.  But I've miscalculated again, overestimating my pace capabilities.  An 8-minute mile over the course of 45 minutes is more "tempo-ish" I think.  I was hitting 85% (150 BPM) by mile 2, which is starting to get into that 'comfortably hard' regime.  I sped up slightly for mile 3 and then pulled back again on mile 4.  I sped up again to 7:45 for mile 5 and then used mile 6 as an 8:20-8:30 recovery.  I then covered the final mile doing 100m strides with 100m recoveries. 


Not enough time to spend on strength training, but I've got the evening since I'll be working late and can hit the gym after work.  


Tomorrow was supposed to be my tempo run, but I'm going to count today as having done that.  I think tomorrow I'll do the spin class and follow that with a slow-paced 5K.  Transitioning from the bike to running is always hard for me and I could use the practice.