Sunday, January 17, 2010

The First Tough Weekend of 2010

I suppose I'm officially back in training now. It certainly feels like it! It hurts. I hurt. Everything hurts, upper body and lower.

I was able to return to the water Saturday afternoon and get some quality time in the pool. After nearly five months on dry land, I didn't know what to expect yesterday. I was hoping for a full mile, but willing to cut it short at a half mile if things were not feeling good. To my great surprise, things felt GREAT! When I finished my second half mile set I still felt good so I added another quarter mile to equal the distance of the Steelhead swim. My splits were: first 1/2 mile - 28:48 / second 1/2 mile - 27:01 (A NEGATIVE SPLIT) / and final .25 mile - 14:54 for a total time of 1:10:44. Not speedy by any stretch, but very decent for me in January.

This morning I met Dan H. in Hinckley at 6 AM to run some hills. We began with two loops of the all-purpose trail around the lake for 6 miles. Time: 55:30. We stayed in the park while it was still dark. That coupled with the fog made for poor visibility and we were not inclined to be hit by any cars.

At 7:00 we decided to hit the roads around the park to measure the Big Loop, a route that circumnavigates the entire Hinckley Reservation. It measured 9.2 miles and took us 1:24 to complete. Talk about hills! The first .75 mile is all uphill! While we got our share of downhills, the uphills seemed to be more numerous.

We finished with one more lap of the all-purpose trail for another 3 miles in 27:40. I was hurting pretty bad by this point. Both my shoulders from swimming and my lower body: feet, ankles, and knees. I don't know what's up with my feet. It's the same pain I was experiencing training for the 24 Hour. As for the knee, it's my right knee now instead of the left. Go figure!

A tough weekend and hopefully worth it in the long run. But for now, time for some recovery!

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