What A Release!

Something that I haven't talked about yet is the amount of stress I'm feeling right now from work. For the last three weeks my whole upper body has been tense. I even have to stop every now and again and make a specific effort to relax. Basically, contract every muscle from the middle of your back through your neck and stay that way for 15 minutes. That's how I've felt the last few weeks.

Some how, I have not developed any tension headaches...yet. However, my workout last night provided such a release. It wasn't anything spectacular (2.33 in 45:00), but it allowed me to relax, get my mind off the problems at work and take that tension and leave in on the pavement.

As for the workout itself...as I said it was nothing spectacular, but it was another workout. If there was one thing that made it different/better, it would be that for the first time, since getting back in the saddle, that I've added some running (13min/mi pace). In the second mile I ran two separate solid 1/8mi segments. With those two, plus another shorter run segment, I ran over 1/4mi in my second mile.

What made it so enjoyable was that on each segment I made myself stop at 1/8mi. I could have run more. The second 1/8mi segment was to finish the mile, but I felt no pain, stiffness or soreness in my shins, calves or legs. I somewhat wonder how far I could have gone. BUT, I have a plan as to how I want to do things, and last night was just a reintroduction of running to my legs and body. I'm taking a gradual approach to how much running I do right now. I want to add more but I have to be careful right now while my weight and conditioning are still where they are. I guess the things that surprised me the most were the lack of pain/soreness, the fact that my heart rate didn't sky rocket and that I was not winded at all at the end of the second mile.

On a slightly different note...I recently found out that a friend of mine from High School is doing the Goofy in January. Turns out he did the full in 2006 and the 1/2 in 2008. In fact, he is doing a "sprint triathlon" (3mi run/6mi bike/400m swim) tomorrow. Good luck Chris!!

In spite of the issues at work, one exciting thing is a new employee that started yesterday is also doing the WDW 1/2 in January. So now I have two more people "around me" that are also going to be there in January.

And finally, this week has been a tough week and I only have 2 of my 5 total goal "workouts" completed. On top of last night's workout, I played 9 holes of golf on Monday with my brother-in-law. But what made it a workout was that we walked and carried our bags. Oh, it was also 90°+ and humid. So, I've only got 2 of 5 complete, but I still have 3 days left.

Till Next Time...Keep Moving Forward!!!