TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

I usually don't run on Sunday unless there is a race, so I think I will try to use the Sunday blog to note other aspects of my fitness program.

1.  Resting heart rate in the mornings this past week have typically been 47 to 48. 

2.  Polymyalgia Rheumatica muscle disorder status.  It has now officially been 2 years since I started seeing muscle aching symptoms.  The doctor said this disease normally goes away within 2 years, so I am very hopeful I can soon begin reducing my medication. 
A week ago I reduced my Prednisone medication down to 7 mg a day (4 mg in the morning and 3 mg at night).  Today I am noticing aching between the shoulder blades in the back.  Have to watch it and see if I raise the medication back to 8 mg.

3.  Core strength training.  Boy am I missing on this one.  Nothing to report. 
No situps, no crunches, no push-ups, nada. 

A hot evening in Austin, TX at McNeil High School.  Temps in the 80's and high humidity, just a hot evening, so I was sweating like a pig.  I did my warm-up miles pushing the pace with Richard.  Then we did drills and Donnie's workout and then back to pushing the 1.2 mile loop around the high school perimeter.  Donnie ran the last 2.4 miles with me after everyone had gone home.  Just a nice hard workout for most of the 10.25 miles.

A cold front across Texas cooled down the temps from the mid 80's last evening to the high 40's tonight.  So I ran with gloves on at Brushy Creek and got 11 miles in tonight.  A nice run all by myself.  I found a new trail where I had to cross a barbed wire fence and got in 2 miles out and back.  The legs felt great tonight after running 10.25 last night over at McNeil HS.  I still think these long runs during the week are good for strong base building.

All body parts feeling pretty nice, no injuries. 

A beautiful evening in Austin, TX with temps in the 50's and a clear sky perfect for running.  I got over to Brushy Creek and started my run at 5:03 PM. I got in 6 miles before the group workout and then joined Bill and the bunch.  We had 18 of us for the group drills and workout.

For the workout Bill had us do 6 of the 2/3 mile loops.  Joe and Tam ran with me and we had a great run.  Bill wanted us to do each loop faster than the one before and we pushed it good and then better and finally we were really pushing it hard.  I think we averaged about a 6:30 per mile pace with probably the fastest pace of 6:15. 

Then I finished with some cool down mileage.  Just a great workout.  All systems are go, no injuries, no complaints.   

A hot humid morning in Austin, TX with temp in the low 60's at 7:00 AM and high humidity.  Met Karen F and Tam at Austin HS track and did warmup and then did 6 speed mile intervals.  Target was to hold it to 7:30 interval miles and did:  7:37; 7:21; 7:19; 7:30; 7:24; 6:45.  Then Karen and I did a cool down 3.1 mile People Bridge loop on Townlake.  Then Lynn, Karen, and I headed to Maudie's for breakfast.  A great workout and a great way to start the weekent.  

This was especially a good workout since I had taken off Thursday and Friday due to a sore throat and cold that sneaked up on me this past week.  I did major resting Thursday and Friday evenings after coming home from work to get recovery on this stupid cold/throat thing.  Other than that, everything feels really good.