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No run today.

This morning I did my annual visit with the sport medicine doctor to get the medical certificate to keep racing. During the cycle ergometer stress test I was stopped after 30" at 240 Watts (when I reached 90% of my max heart rate), last year after 1 minute, but luckily no major arrhytmias or other major anomalies. The ultrasonograph was still the same as in the previous years, so I received the OK from the doc for another year. I was really happy about, I have some minor heart problems that require some monitoring, and the fact that nothing has changed for the worse is still a very good news.

Tonight to celebrate the good news I did the first speed work out of the winter season.

5X800m with 400m recovery jog, these were my splits: 3:10, 2:57, 2:55, 2:57, 2:29. I was slow during the first one, my legs didn't want to go any faster then I got into a good rhytm. I wanted to do some more repeats but my legs were surprisingly sore from the heavy biking in the morning. Overall I did 6.6 miles at 4:58/km.

11k at slow pace then the last 6k at 4:40/k. Perfect night to run, light breeze and some moisture in the air.

Not enough time to run tonight, 5.2 miles in 42:28.

Slow easy run to pile up some mileage.

This morning I went to the hospital for the first session of the shock wave treatment, 10 seconds into the treatment the "gun" stopped working, I have to say I was glad, it was really painful and ready to cry, already after just 10 seconds. I was warned by the therapist but I didn't expect this level of pain. The "gun" didn't recover, a technician arrived but he couldn't do anything. Oh well, at least next time I will be prepared.

10k at night at slow pace, it was some kind of recovery run.

This morning I was tired and it was going to be warm again. I started with the goal of doing my 26.1k at 5:00/k or under or whatever was coming out of my legs. First kms were slow above 5:00 and it took like 11k to reach the 5:00/k guy. This morning I decided to use a more real approach and instead doing an easier (flat) route I extended my loop to include 2 big rollers (on top of the 2 I usually do) over 2k to make things a little bit more challenging. I have to say that in that respect everything went well I hit them right after I was on 5:00/k pace and I felt almost liberated and from the point back to the car I really pushed the pace well under 5:00/k. I did the first half in 1:04:50 second half in 1:02:10. Overall a good run, a couple of minutes slower than last week but at the end much more relaxed and in good spirit, if it wasn't for the heat (I was really dehydrated) I would have kept going for anothe couple of miles.