against the wind

we were running, against the wind. Well I was anyway. Didn't run with the fast guys today. Did my own 25 minute tempo run. Nice and warm again today, but lots of wind. 54 degrees with winds from 19 mph, gusting to 29 mph. Sure felt like a brick wall when I turned into the wind after my 2 mile warmup and started the tempo work. That part of the route goes out 1.5 miles, I turned around at 1 mile after talking myself out of not even doing the tempo workout. Glad I stuck with it. First mile adjusted for the wind was about where it needed to be. The second mile with the wind at my back was right on. Turning home, the wind was at my side for another mile which came in a little quick. Ended up with about 3.7 miles of tempo work for the 25 minutes.

Wore the heart the monitor for this workout. Tried to keep the heart rate at 164 bpm, ending up averaging 166. That's about 1 tick below where I was running tempo workouts at the first of the year. Don't have near the endurance, though.

Did another weight workout this morning. I've really slacked off on the weights in the last month. My back has been sore the last couple of days. I think its because of the lack of weight training. I'd always been under the impression the running helped my back. I guess the cross training with the weights is equally important. All about strengthening the core. Also started to do some different variations of the wall stretch for my calves. They've started to tighten up on me again.

Really need to buy another pair of shoes. I'm not as happy with this second pair of Asics Gel Cumulus. This pair seems to have a wider toe box and tighter heel cup. That may be what has been aggravating my achilles.