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Intervals & Housework on Dreary Sunday

More Intervals
Originally it was supposed to have been about 66 degrees today and sunny. Instead, it was heavy fog, mist, and about 36 degrees when I woke up. While I know I couldn't have done a long run today, I had still hoped to get outside for a medium-distance run at the very least. But that just wasn't happening.

After having a mini-meltdown about not knowing what other workout I could do, I packed up the laptop and headed to the gym. I briefly thought about shoulders and chest today, but my biceps are pretty sore from yesterday, so that wouldn't have made for an ideal lifting session.

My next thought was to try to do 2 maybe 3 miles tops on the treadmill depending on my foot situation. Then I could set up the laptop in the cardio room and do some boxing or kickboxing.

So, I hopped on the treadmill and stared out into the solid wall of white clouds. I must say that can be very disorienting. Usually I get to look out over the river, today, no view at all. I had low hopes of a decent run.

I got going though, and things just fell in place. So I ended up hitting 6 miles with some pretty good intervals. I may be WAY off my half marathon training plan, but at least I'm still moving right?

2 miles warm up at 9:13 min/mile
4 mins at 8:34 with 4 mins at 9:31 recovery
3 mins at 8:34 with 3 mins at 9:31 recovery
2 mins at 8:34 with 2 mins at 9:31 recovery
2 x 1 min at 8:13 at with 1 mins at 9:31 recovery
30 second intervals starting at an 8 min/mile all the way down to 7:30 min/mile (maybe 6 intervals I think)
Rounded out to 6 miles at 8:57 min/mile to finish

The 8:34 min/mile pace is definitely feeling much more comfortable. This is a good thing of course. Now I need to start increasing the interval time to a full mile then start increasing the pace again. I may not be able to do really long runs right this moment, but maybe that's good for me in the end. Maybe this is my chance to focus on some speed.

When I go home, I took a nice hot shower, put on some comfy yoga pants and big baggy (aka super ugly but super comfy) sweatshirt and hit the yoga mat. I tried to stretch even longer than I normally would after a long run. I also tried to spend more time rolling out the kinks on the Triggerpoint Therapy Kit.

I think in order to get past these injuries, I am going to have to be even more diligent about recovery. Not only continuing to really focus on the strength training for my lower body, but additional stretching, yoga poses, and rolling on the Triggerpoint. I also need to suck it up and invest in a few massage sessions. I need to realize that it's not a frivolous expense, but rather a necessity for me and keeping my body healthy for running.

Do you see massages as something frivolous, more pampering or do they fall into the necessity category for you?

Housework Kind of Day
The rest of the day was spent doing housework. It was such an ugly day out. So foggy that it was misting and just wet and damp. I had hoped to get started on some big projects, but Jason needed to finish work in the attic first.

After the water heater went out a few weeks ago and he pulled pretty much everything out of the attic, he left it out so that he could finish cleaning out tons of junk that was left there before we bought the house. Plus, not all of the flooring is secure, so he's working on that. This all means more usable space up there for better storage.

Until all the "stuff" makes its way back to the attic, I can't exactly get started on some of the projects I want to get going - like painting the gym room and our bedroom. Plus we're going to paint our kitchen cabinets.

I did manage to get lots of laundry done and even folded. I also did a lot of paper shredding and bill filing. We have a really bad tendency to let paid bills just pile up and not actually file them. The office is flat out embarrassing to me.

While I was on a cleaning spree, I pulled out my magic eraser and went to town trying to scrub down our stove, hood vent, pretty much all surfaces in the kitchen. I swear that magic eraser can make me terribly OCD. I pretty much destroyed a brand new sponge in one cleaning session. But man things look shiny ;-)

I'm fairly certain that the rest of the day will be spent piddling around doing more chores here and there. I do have 2 more loads of laundry going right now that I'll have to attend to at some point. But other than that, it's a very very low-key day around here.

I hope you are having a great Sunday whether you're just relaxing or being super productive.

Daily To-Enjoy List:
  • Run
  • Being productive
  • No makeup or hair fixing day

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