Picking back up from Wed

Now where was I? Let's see, when I last left you, my faithful reads, I had completed a two hour run on Wednesday morning. I followed that up with a 30 minute run in the evening doing laps around the park across the street from my apt. with a low HR.

Thursday evening included an interesting workout. First up was a 1:15 bike. Between a 10 min. warm-up and 5 minute cool down, I had to increase my HR by 5 bpm every 10 minutes starting I 135 bpm and finishing at a leg-burning 160 bpm. I met or surpased by a beat or two each HR target, though the last one required working pretty hard. Building by 5 bpm makes the workout easier, however, as 160 bpm for 10 minutes is a bit intimidating (at least on the trainer, where all effort is magnified).

I hopped off the bike, took a quick shower, and headed over to get a massage. Coincidentally, stepping back in time to Wednesday afternoon, I had been walking through Whole Foods to pick up some lunch when I was handed a card for a free 30 minute massage with another 30 minutes for only $30. With me having a massage required as part of what was then tomorrow's workout, this was perfect. So, after getting off the bike, Stacey and I went and got us some massages. My neck and upper back were pretty much one big knot. I guess that's a sign that I need to relax a bit more (undestatement) in the shoulders while swimming. I will work on being a bit more aware of tension that I'm unnecessarily exerting. My shoulders and neck are a bit sore from the massage today (i.e. Friday), but otherwise I feel good. Oh, and my calve was not sensitive at all during the massage, unlike it had been when I first noticed the tightness - at that time, even Stacey's light massages were a bit painful. I'll take the lack of calve pain at the massage as a good sign.

Anyhow, post massage, I got back on the bike for another 45 minutes of pretty easy spinning while watching an episode of Lost (I'm still on season 1, so no spoilers! Good show so far, by the way, though you should probably start at the beginning or else it likely won't make any sense.)

This morning I went for an easy 1 hour run with a HR of around 120 bpm. I think I'm slowly picked up speed at that HR, and don't feel like my stride is altered too much. My calve was still not 100% however, though it didn't bother me. Really, right now I wouldn't even notice any different between calves if I weren't thinking about it.

Next up, after looking up the tabs for the Jane's Addiction song "Stop!" (I only know the intro riff, which is a kinda cool one), is a swim this evening, something like 3600m. Gotta get that 100m time down to 1:20, and then lower from there. Watch out Phelps!