To Begin Again....

Once the New York City Marathon is finished, it's like the end of the year for me. The new year begins the next day, Monday.

The first week or so, is recovery, and reflection. I take in everything that I did that year, and how I performed. I look to see how I can improve the following year.

Usually this period of time had taken about a month but my body has become more and more resilient. This year, I only needed 1 week. And that's inspite of running the majority of the race like Quasimoto, too.

One of the important aspects for me in this "new" year of running, is to make sure I don't eat dinner late. So, even after having to work late tonight, I came home first to cook. I made a couple of breaded chicken cutlets, but this time did not dab in egg. I used less bread crumbs too. The result? Just as tasty and less calories.

I then left for the gym and excersized for about an hour (8p-9p). I worked on various equipment. I worked on my hammys, abs, shoulders and about 2 miles on the elliptical. Will do more tonight. Reps are good, but with lots to do in my busy schedule, I can see how opting for doing less reps at with more weight resistance as being a more desireable approach at managing my time.

Afterwards I felt great. I did not want to push it, and made sure I had something left in the tank afterwards. Also, I had only slept about 4.5 hours the night before, and doing too much physical with not enough sleep, is a great cocktail for getting injured.

Summary of my workout:
http://www.runningahead.com/logs/b547b398683c44859a20577728e5ffb5/workouts/5dbb4915dfd7477bbaeb45431ce20aa2

I also did some stretches too, but not the full complement. Not yet, anyway. Calves are feeling much, much better though, so calf stretching could commence as early as this weekend.

I just changed my bloodwork this Saturday to an earlier time (now 10am). Going to have my cholesterol checked. It was 219 back in February, which I thought was bad, but my doc mentioned that it was "okay" and "manageable" since I part of that number included a high level of "HDL" (the better of the two cholesterols). I would like to stay under 200 though. So I am hoping that my exercise and recent change in diet will aid.