Rest of the week

Monday was miserable experience as it is supposed to be when you're sick (puking + high fever). Tuesday was also a day off, but I felt alive again. On Wednesday I did a short shakeout run and on Thursday I jumped back to original schedule.

Yesterday morning I did a nice 7.5 miler and listened to music for the first time in 23 years on the road. Weather was also easy on me (it was only 7F compared to real feel of Thursday: -15F), so it was an excellent booster. Today I did a tempo/steady-state run on treadmill after baby swimming. To summarize my feelings during those 5 miles (@6.17): I really hope that I could again get back in shape...  Patience...

Oh and this would be an awesome race: http://www.runforyourlives.com/

Treadmill fun

Morning temperature was -11F => treadmill. Easy run would have been ok, but I had planned to run a wave run. Conveniently we have baby swimming at 8 AM in a spa which also has a gym with 2 treadmills. After "swimming" and sauna I sneaked out do to the workout. When I entered the gym both treadmills were in use so I had to warm up on a stationary bike. After 25 minutes on bike I was ready to roll.

I enjoyed enourmously when I was running 4+ miles by alternating 1ks (6.40/5.50). Huge fun. Because this was the first "faster" workout for ages, I decided to be patient and do only 4 faster repeats. It worked fine and after the run I felt awesome and ready for more. That's the best feeling!

Yesterday I had an opportunity to run easy with young studs. I joined Jole and Bruni who were getting ready for the indoor nationals which take place this weekend in Helsinki. Rock! 

In the middle of the week

On Monday afternoon I had my revenge with treadmill (or vice versa). The first workout was a steady state tempo run 4k (@ 6:34) + 4k (@ 6:26) + 2k (@ 6:00) + 2k WU and 2k CD. It was fun but boring and humid. The weather outside was, however, a good motivator due to around -13F temp.

Yesterday I had a massage but a pretty easy one. Today I did 6 miler starting at 6AM (in mild 0F).

The worst news from yesterday is that Jukka Keskisalo has again a bad problem. Now a broken bone in the foot.

I'm alive

I expected that the first run when I hit at least 1 km sub 6.30s would be in few months and painful. But no, it was today (5F, not wind) and it just suprised me. I joined Dr. A's afternoon run during which all of a sudden the pace (per 1k) accelerated from 7.50s to 7.14, 7.03, 6.46, and 6.22. That felt awesome albeit the last k stinked pretty badly.

Achilles was ok but hamstring/gluteus showed me a conditional middle finger. I gotta keep that in mind, too. Rehabilitation exercises have to be excented to cover more and more deficiencies.

Yeah yeah yeah

I had a nice Friday on sofa. I had cold and as usual I "lost" my lungs. So I did nothing but rest. Yesterday I gave xc skiing a chance but I felt too sick to do any decent workout. I skied only half a mile and returned to car.

Today I, however, went running and had a nice grispy morning jog. Oh, running felt so heavy and good at same time. I really had work a lot to back home even if I ran only 8 miles (@ pedestrian pace, 7.50s). Still, it was my longest run since last May.

Currently, legs and the rest of the body are not at all adjusted for running. It means a long, but enjoyable road ahead.

Out-of-shape dude commented: "Achilles is getting better"

Without a clear target it's a task to motive yourself. Although I'm happy with the current steady state of alternating days of skiing and running I'm soon ready for more (this week I've run 10 miles and skied about 13 miles). Luckily, the recovery is still in progress so I have to keep myself patient for couple weeks. And the best thing is that the operated achilles is silent and co-operative. Well, yesterday after running and walking a bit it began aching, but a little dose of ice eased that pain.

This far I can confess that I'm totally out of shape. The tiny amount of xc skiing hasn't helped me much and the last decent bike ride is from early September. Running feels so heavy now but to find a reason for that doesn't require a degree in rocket science: After returning from the US I weighed 140 and now the scale shows almost 150. That sucks, but eating is too fun!

Tomorrow I'll have to review the year 2010. I have a gut feeling that it wasn't the best athletic year of my life.

Brrrrr....

It almost -10F outside. Normally it wouldn't hurt that much but today I'm afraid that the low amount of time spent outside this winter haven't prepared me for this kind of weather. I was going ski this morning, but since I have only one skiing mode (full steam ahead), I chose not to. Core workout time instead...