After the 4.5 mile run weekend before last, I worked out at the gym the next Monday after work, a tradition I'd like to keep up this season. Actually, twice a week at a minimum would be good. The only problem with after-work gym sessions is that it cuts into my sleep, for the commute home, dinner, and therapy takes quite a while.
Anyway, the workout was really good, with 30 minutes on the bike pedaling like mad. When I began doing the stationary bike, I could hardly stand going 20 minutes at about 85 rpm and a heartrate of 132 bpm. But last Monday, I had my heartrate up at 142 to 148 bpm the whole time with pedal rpm at 100 - 115. And it felt good. Not easy, but good in that comfortably stressful kind of way. I could have kept it up for an hour at least. But I had to move on to some weights. I again surprised myself, crunching out 60 situps, 15 pullups, and 30 pushups in a single straight set each. I should be doing more - and faster - but that will come. And the weights also felt good. The gym was so crowded, I resorted to using some oft-neglected machines in the corner for my tricep and bicep curls and found the machines to be rather nice.
Two days later, Wednesday before last, I headed out for my Wednesday after-work run. I had publicized the run the day before at work - but nobody showed up to run with me, of course. I didn't expect them to. I will keep publicizing the after-work runs and see if persistence pays off. I was only going to do two miles, but after stopping and stretching, I didn't feel like I was done, and finished off another two miles, ending my run with a strong finish at Chambers street. That was a VERY good run!
And then I didn't run again 'til last night. What happened? Well, a motorcycle event up in Vermont, meaning an 800-mile on-the-bike weekend, and a raging head cold. I'm only just now getting over it. I was going to run Wednesday, but a friend at work mentioned he'd meant to bring his shoes this week and forgot. So we made plans to run Thursday, last night.
And we did! I'm very much surprised, but S came out with me and we ran the first two miles together. We did a 9:15 pace the whole way. I stopped for water at the Boathouse and he continued on. He's not a runner, yet, but is a very fit skater and snowboarder, and is ten years younger than me, so I'm not surprised he ran well.
After getting some water (HUGE mistake not to have brought any - it was hot out), I tackled Cat Hill. I made it, but did walk a bit afterwards, maybe less than a minute, then finished up at NYRR headquarters to pick up a bib for this weekend's Healthy Kidney 10K.
And once again, I didn't feel like my run was finished. So I tacked on another mile and walked the last half-mile to the N subway station. Feeling a little sore this morning, but that's no surprise!
The one thing that surprises me is that I'm toughing through much longer stretches of running these past few weeks before stopping for whatever reason. I'll be curious what Saturday morning brings. It is supposed to be cool and maybe rainy. I've had good Healthy Kidney runs before and I'm hoping to be able to run this one with no walk breaks, or maybe only walk while drinking some water at the tables. I'm not going to PR, but I'd like to finish this one in under an hour.
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