Some consistency

This past week has seen me get back to some sort of a routine. Since I finally landed a job at a bank a few weeks ago, I have been able to put some priority back into training rather than being unemployed. Of course, the holiday season always is disruptive to training, with old friends and family in town and wanting to get together for drinks and food. Therefore Jan 1st saw the start of my life returning to normal.

Since I received a gym pass for my birthday, I have been able to get in the gym quite a bit lately. It is really nice to be able to work on my core and upper body, which lacked in strength last year. I am now working out at least once a day, and eating well again.

My runs and rides have been going pretty good. I am still a long way from being in shape, but it is coming along. The biggest thing that is holding me back right now is my inability to recover from high heart rates. This was evident in my last run with Nick, where my heart rate could just not recover from the hills at cedar hill. I was still in the 180s on the flats between hills. As I told Nick, it's not so much that I am tired, but one can only run for so long with a 180 HR, whether they are in shape or not. The entire run had an average of 173, only 33 beats higher than Nick!

For obvious reasons, I am not participating in the pioneer 8k this week. I don't want to sound too full of myself, but I just wouldn't be able to deal with such a poor result compared to last year. It sucks, because I LOVE that race, and racing really
helps you get in shape, but I'm just not ready, and mentally no good can come from it. I might volunteer at it though.

Swimming is starting slowly, but I am enjoying doing a lot of paddle work. I did a few sets of 100s and had a chuckle, since I was THAT slow.

That's all for now