The week that was ...

The days are filled with much to do lately, and the timelapserunner is not keeping up with obligations. This situation presents its own kind of stress, different from that presented by a hard workout, but still taxing. What to do in such situations? Well, it's certainly tempting to skip a day's workout, get some more sleep, and then think that the stress load has been reduced. The best advice, however, runs counter to that thought as exercise itself is a great stress reliever. If you're going to cut something out of a hectic schedule let it not be your daily workout.


Great advice this is: the endorphins produced during exercise are a powerful feel-good drug for our brains, distance running becomes a form of meditation and, in general our mood improves after our daily workout. So, how did that advice inform last week's efforts?

Monday: DNR. That could stand for Do Not Resuscitate but, in this circumstance stands for Did Not Run. Or walk, as the case may be. My goodness, right out of the box we miss a day of exercise. Maybe we needed the day off. Maybe it was just a sign of things to come that day.

Tuesday: We went to the Lakes as usual despite noticing some yellow splotches on the radar coming our way. Though we dodged the rain, the timelapserunner's GymBoss skipped a heartbeat and spun off into some reset mode in the middle of our run. So, what started out as a 2:17 / 1:00 interval set suddenly turned into a 3:00 / 1:00 set. Planned to run at 11:05 overall but actually ran at 10:52 pace.

Wednesday: Just a 15:31 pace walk in the neighborhood. Didn't skip this day like we did Monday.

Thursday: Now this was the weather we'd been looking towards for some time - at or just below 60˚F. While the lower temperature is good, called for us to run longer intervals (2:52 / 1:00) and faster speeds (10:11 overall pace) with a very brisk running pace (9:02 per mile). Our overall pace for the run was 10:06. Survived this much faster-paced run.

Friday: A 15:33 pace walk around the block.

Saturday: The timelapserunner missed the morning run to catch his granddaughter's cross country race (she PR'd) but did an afternoon run in the heat at a very slow pace - 14:01 per mile for 5.3 miles, using 1:30 / 1:00 intervals.

All in all, a good week but a bit weird on a few occasions. Here's hoping we can keep up the workout program despite the stress of getting a bit behind in meeting obligations.