The Old Way

I might have gone light Monday, but Tuesday I cranked it up a bit. First I went to the pool. Tyler was there and he swam more than last week, but he is still hurting. That's pretty strong evidence that he has a broken rib. He swam 1,050 slow yards with only two flip turns. That's improvement and he has stopped the freefall of his fitness. There is some victory in that. I swam 1,100. Yeah, I wanted and needed more, but I had to go to school.

School was nice, and I have now met all my students. Many of them I had last semester. I am liking the way this term is pointed. Yeehaa.

After work, I tried to take a nap. I could hardly stay awake on the job, but once home sleep was a stranger to me. Funny how that works. Eventually I went out for a shuffle and did 10.57 miles. Yeah, that was a pretty good run. I did it fartlek style, the old way. Nowadays fartlek running is highly structured. But when it hit the running scene in the late 1970s, you made it up as you went. The word (Sweedish) means "speed play." It is a medium to long run where you throw in some faster running. I do and did it the old way, that is, I made it up on the fly. I would find a nice smooth part of the shoulder on Money Road and hit if for ten strides per side at almost sprint pace. After a recovery, I would go to twelve, then thirteen, fifteen, twenty. Once back in town, I would cross all roads at 5K race pace and do some short blocks that way. I played until my legs would not come out to play anymore.

At the gym, I did my pull workout. I added 1:05 on the Echo bike. I sort of hate that thing. It is difficult and makes me feel like I have no fitness at all. I know, that means it's good, that it is working. But it feels bad. When I get off it, I am sucking air to the maximum. I like, enjoy, low to moderate intensity exercise. The Echo bike doesn't do low to moderate intensity. It does balls to the wall stuff. At a cadence of 60, I can barely last a minute and then not only my legs are tired, but my shoulders are shot. I just hope I can keep making myself get on that thing.

So I worked and did three workouts. I feel pretty good about that. Today classes start in ernest. I'm looking forward to my Old Testament class. We start Genesis today. That is one loaded book. Can't wait.