Saturday, June 20, 2009

Moving along

It's been six weeks and now the restrictions on my activities are starting to loosen up just a little bit. I'm still limited from lifting much over 10-20 lbs or riding my bike but can now start up with some easy running at last.

During the past week I've been walking 4-5 miles every day outdoors and have started mixing in a short jogs during each mile. It began with 1 minute running and have worked up to 4x5 minute running during today's 4 mile treadmill run (because it's pouring rain today)

One thing I have noticed is how much out of shape I've got in just 6 weeks. My resting heartrate is now approaching 50 where it used to be in the low 40'ies. I'm also seeing my exercising heartrate shoot up to near max while just doing easy running. The 4 minute runs above were at an easy pace of 8:30 to 9:00 but with 140-160 heartrate which is 80-95% of max. I'm expecting some improvements here in short order though.

On the home front things have been fairly quiet. I'm been spending most of my time on the computer, watching sports on TV and lots of reading. However, with the freeing up of many of my restrictions there are now a number of honey-do chores to be tackled. It looks like my painting and carpentry skills will come into play as we spruce up the yard and house.

This weekend is going to be busy with our local 5 mile St. Andrews Fathers Day race being held on Sunday. This is the 31st edition of this race and it's part of the Run New Brunswick racing series. Typically we get about 100 runners with some impressive speedsters and age groupers showing up every year. My job this year is to take care of the registration and results and will also find time to snap as many pictures as possible for the website. The only thing to worry about is the weather with heavy rain forecast for the overnight. Hopefully it will slow down to just a few light showers by morning. My co-race director affirms that we've never had rain in the 30+ years during our race but I seem to remember getting wet over the years! We can hope though, so wish us good luck!

That's it for now. The plan for next week is to gradually extend the running while reducing the walking so as to get back to continuous running in a few weeks. I must say that the little walk breaks are getting to be rather pleasant and might be hard to give up totally as I go forward.

Also, be sure check out Garry's progress tomorrow at his 3rd full Ironman at Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. He's ready willing and able and I'm hoping the weather will co-operate this time.

Have a nice week all!

5 comments:

Andrew said...

That HR will come down. You've been through a lot. You keep at it so there can be another gathering of the blind moose one of these Sundays. I wonder if that will happen before your trip?

Jamie Anderson said...

Mike, I just now got caught up on your blog. Holy cow, you have been though a lot, but awesome to hear that you're on the rebound. Beating cancer is no easy task. Glad the surgery took care of it and the recovery is coming along. Thinking good thoughts for you that everything continues on track.

Ewen said...

I hope it's not raining Mike - not much of a fun task working on a race in pouring rain. Funny coincidence - they had light rain for the local Canada Day Fun Run this morning (which I missed).

Interesting about the 'lost' fitness - as Andrew says, it'll come back fast. I've noticed a higher HR after just one slack week!

DawnB said...

Mike, I'm so glad you are back out there you're doing great, I'm sure you'll be back to yourself shortly.

Michael said...

Good luck with the running this week, enjoy!