Choose Exercise

Well, here it is ... Monday ... and I went to the gym. Monday is usually my reserved day off and especially since I just broke a new record yesterday with my mileage, I normally wouldn't push myself like this. However, we're going to Vegas for the weekend and I don't really think I'll be running while I'm there, so I'm going to try to squeeze in my required mileage for the week before we leave.

That left me at the gym on a Monday morning. When I got there, my normal treadmill was taken, which didn't make me any more excited to be there. Instead, I got on one of the "new" gym treadmills that are not my favorite and was greeted with this message scrolling along the treadmill screen, "Wellness is vitality ... choose exercise." Now, I would just like to point out that when I saw this message, I didn't feel particularly excited. I thought it was a little bit redundant to have this message flashing on the treadmill. I've already chosen to go to the gym and work out! Geez.

My goal for today was to do 5 miles. My weekly total (Monday - Sunday) for the week should be somewhere between 24 and 26 miles. I had been thinking that I would do 5 today, 7 Tuesday, rest Wednesday, 4 Thursday and 8 on Friday. That gets me to exactly 24. Except my legs weren't really in the mood to run five miles today.

I knew that I should keep the pace slow and treat today as a recovery run. I kept it at 5.5 pace 99% of the time (I did take one walking/drinking break). It was slow going, but I felt okay and just ran nice and easy. Even though I didn't quite hit my mileage goal today, I think it'll be okay. It's not the end of the world if I miss my goal by one or two miles this week. I keep getting really nervous about the race, but as Drew keeps reminding me, there is still lots and lots of time for training and I probably don't have to worry quite yet.

Running
Time: 44:03
Distance: 4.00 miles
Pace: 11:00/mile
Calories: 480
Maximum HR: 171
Average HR: 160