Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Slowly, but Surely and Goodbye to Grete

Indeed, I am nowhere near 100% as far as health goes. My immune system, weakened by antibiotics, seems to be particularly susceptible to any and all nasty viruses or bacteria that about as the weather (in theory) warms up. Although we are not seeing anything resembling Spring-like temperatures, yours truly still got hammered with a cold virus.

As reported previously I did not manage a single run over the past weekend. For perhaps the first time ever I decided that caution better than filling in the training log with what would have amounted to nothing more than junk miles. Instead, I remained confined to my bedroom waiting for the cold to run its course.

Monday I still felt like crap, but given that it was from the neck up I made it to the gym at lunchtime for a decent, if unspectacular, leg workout. My heart rate was elevated, but I managed to push as much weight as I normally do so I called it a success.

Today I feel a little better. My head is stuffed up and I have a headache, but at least I'm not going through boxes of tissues at as alarming a rate. I made it to the gym for a good chest and arm workout followed by a spur of the moment run on the treadmill.

I had designs on taking my potential run outside in the evening, but the weather looks nasty as whatever is happening in Texas will be bringing tonnes of cold rain up to Toronto. Given my weakened state I decided that a controlled environment was preferred and so hit the human hamster wheel for a nice 10km run.

To cut the boredom I played a bit with the incline settings during this run. After a 5 minute warm up at 6.7mph (5:33/km) I upped the speed to 7.2mph (5:11/km) for another 5 minutes at 1% incline. I then raised the incline to 2% for 5 minutes, 3% for 5 minutes, and 4% for 5 minutes.

From that point on I alternated 5 minutes at 1% incline with 5 minutes at 4% incline until I finished the run in 52:10 for an average pace of 5:12/km (8:23/mile). Not too bad given how I was feeling. It was nice to throw in some simulated hills as it provided a decent challenge and broke up the boredom a bit. Watching the old Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror" with closed captioning was somewhat entertaining as well. I think it was one of the best episodes they made if only for the goatee on Mr. Spock in the parallel Universe...

Nasty Sulu hitting on Uhura was also amusing.

And on a more sombre note I was surprisingly affected by the news of the passing of Grete Waitz today at the age of 57. I was not even aware of the existence of the New York City Marathon at the time when she dominated the race, but her impact on the sport, in particular for women, is immeasurable. She will be missed. Perhaps it is the timing of this sad news coming the day after the fastest marathon in history, and a real celebration of the sport in both the men's and women's races in Boston (Desiree Davila's runner up finish was a terrific surprise given all the hype around Kara Goucher!), that makes her passing so moving.

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