stress

... what a shame I've only done 36.

Mu left Achilles hurts, my right knee has a mobile ache, this morning my back went into spasm. Oh yes, and it's sub-30 degrees and snowing, I guess just to make sure we here can fully appreciate Bobby's North Pole run.

I wouldn't mind, but this was supposed to be an Easy Week.

I've just stumbled in from a one-hour, six-mile "run", that was actually great fun apart from my guilt about it being so slow. I'd seized the moment as soon as the snow stopped and sun reappeared, but by the time I got out on the trail it was so muddy that I was soon running like Frankenstein's monster. I had to abandon the trail and do my return loop on the verge at the side of the highway, finally detouring through a new housing neighborhood. See, we can do "urban" in Boulder, too.

I figured being born and bred in wet and cold England (and in the year of London's last "pea souper" -- fog), I was able to put up with a bit of bad weather. But maybe not :)
I've gone down with flu in a big way.

I saw acupuncturist extraordinaire Dr Ma today and had a great treatment. His take on it was the long run I did (in the cold) put me over the edge -- suppressed my immune system just that little bit extra needed for some virus to take advantage. The sore, stiff back is being caused by my coughing and spluttering. He could be right -- it really hurts my back when I cough. He says what happens is the spaces between the verterbrae close up, so he stuck some extra needles in to "gap" them.

Ever tried taking your resting heart rate?

Coach Bobby McGee has asked the Masters Milers group to supply some numbers for our baseline assessments. One of those is RHR.

It's easier said than done. Ideally you would have someone do it for you first thing in the morning as they lovingly wake you with a nice cup of tea. What you're looking for, after all, is resting heart rate, not your heart rate after you've a) woken with start from a palpitating nightmare of chasing Henry Rono up a mountain while a team of pursuing IRS agents fires water pistols at you, b) clawed a suffocating pillow off your face and hurled it to the floor, then realised it was the cat while c) simultaneously knocking your heart rate monitor and/or alarm clock off the bedside table while sitting up without thinking and then realising that you have to, just have to, go to the bathroom right now.