Six Weeks Later and I Finally Ran Those Promised Intervals

My physical therapist promised on March 2nd that we were going to give running a try during my next session. She said we would keep it easy and incorporate a few run intervals into my walk on the treadmill. Unfortunately, two days later I was diagnosed with the flu and missed a week of PT. Resting in bed while sick set my recovery back a bit and then the whole pandemic hit and well, I just never really felt like I was ready to run… until yesterday.

A brisk, cold wind kept me from heading outside for my walk so I hopped on my treadmill for a faster paced walk with my sights set on completing a 5K with a few run intervals thrown in as a trial. After a mile warmup with my treadmill set at 3.9 (15:22 pace), I increased the speed to 5.5 (10:54 pace) for two one-minute intervals and one two-minute interval.

I couldn’t believe how winded I got, but I feel confident that my endurance will come back quickly. I hadn’t run since December 30th other than to jog across the parking lot if someone slowed to let me cross. That’s almost 16 weeks without running, by far the longest break since I started training for my first marathon in 1997.

 

April Walks and Flowers

As I mentioned on Instagram yesterday, this spring seems to have been one of our most beautiful ever. I wonder if that’s really the case or does it just seem that trees and flowers are blooming brighter and longer this year because life is slower and I’m focusing more on the beauty of my surroundings. Whatever the case, here’s my weekly dose of flowers for you to enjoy!

Variegated Apple Blossoms…

 

Cream and Gold Jonquils…

 

Off White Daffodil…

 

Pink Crabapple (I think)…

 

And Now on to a RunDown of this Past Week’s Workouts…

 

Running

4 minutes

Running is running, so I’m counting those four minutes as a successful start to my comeback!

 

Walking

2 x 5K

This past week I focused on picking up my pace on both walks, keeping my speed in the 15-something pace range. One walk was outside and one was on my treadmill with those short run intervals thrown in.

 

Biking

2 x 8-10 miles

As I mentioned last week, I pedaled away on Sunday while watching Easter mass; and then did similarly on Thursday, wrapping up my bike ride as I began a virtual session with a client.

 

Strength Training

3 x 1 hour
5 x 30 minutes of PT homework

As I’ve said before, I’m one of those people who love strength training and find it difficult to skip a workout.

 

Yoga

0 x 0 minutes

Sooo a lightbulb went off this morning (I know, scary, huh?) when it dawned on me that I don’t have to do a yoga routine to do yoga. I’ve set my goal to do a few of my favorite poses after my workouts and that will be my transition back into yoga.

 

It’s on the Blog

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

Coming up this week, I’ll be joining Marcia on Friday for another installment of Runfessions. I’ve only gone on one run since my last visit to the runfession linkup in December so it will be interesting to see what other fessions I have to get off my chest! I also have another blog post in the works which has taken quite a bit of research that I’m hoping to get published this week.

 

In addition to the workouts I mentioned above, here’s a complete rundown of my workouts from this past week (completed either outside or in our home gym)…

 

Questions:
  • • If you’ve been doing some give and take with your workouts, what do you seem to regularly put off? ~ It’s definitely been yoga for me.
  • • What’s the longest break from running you’ve had to take, either due to an injury, lack of interest, or something else?
  • • Did you run in a virtual race this weekend?

 

And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!

 

*********************************************************************

 

I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!