10k and a little more

Been a while since I logged in, but that's not from a lack of working out. Like Beth, I'm a little lazy about posting. Unlike Beth, I'm not quite that lazy about getting to the gym. Here's what I've been doing since last week.

On Monday I did 5 miles on a treadmill, starting at 6.1 mph and going up .1 for each mile, with a sprint at the end. It was my first day back to working out after a few days off, and I felt surprisingly loose. That was fine, until Tuesday night, when I went back to do some circuit training and a few other random exercises. Same as last time, the leg exercises were fine, but man, my arms are out of shape. I only got through one set on each of the arm machines, so I'm really going to have to start incorporating that more often. But on the plus side, I did more than double the number of crunches I can do in a day. The workout was only 45 minutes, but the soreness lasted for days and days and days...

Wednesday was the first night of Passover. I got out of work early and caught the train home, and had a little more time before the Seder than I expected. I knew I wouldn't be able to work out on Thursday because of a Seder in New Jersey, and I wanted to get at least a small run before the 10k this morning, so I went to the gym and did 2 miles. After all, 2 miles is better than zero miles. Since it was a short distance I upped the speed a little and finished in under 19 minutes.

On Thursday, I went to another Seder straight from work, so exercising was out, but it was OK, because I was planning to go for a nice bike ride at the gym on Friday.

Friday I bailed on the gym.

Today I had a 10k in Central Park, my second qualifying race for the 2010 NYC marathon. My friend loaned me her apartment for the night while she was sleeping somewhere else, so I woke up an hour before the start, got dressed, and walked out...into the pouring rain and 44 degree weather. Perfect. I'm so glad I brought my brand new running shoes that I've only used twice for that. The mud pit where the bagels were after the run was especially helpful to keeping the sneakers looking good.

Other than the cold and the rain, which truthfully I didn't mind after I had warmed up in the first mile, the run went very well. Officially, I completed 6.22 miles in 1:02:38, a 10:06 pace, and the furthest distance I've run since the Soldier Field 10 Mile last May. Luckily, I braved the rain for a good 15 minutes before the race waiting for my GPS watch to get a signal, and according to high-tech satellite technology, I actually ran 6.37 miles, making it a 9:50 pace. Obviously, I'm going with the latter. I also burned over 1,000 calories.

Tomorrow, I'm sleeping late. I probably will work out, because starting this week, for 5 of the next 6 weeks, I have an awful schedule that gives me no time to do anything but work and class 2 days a week and also gives me an extra hour of work 2 other days. I'm reeeeally looking forward to it.