A clydesdale no more!

Today was just a general aerobic run.  It seems like I haven't had one of those for awhile.  My lower legs were really tight and my feet were slapping the ground more than usual.  I keep trying to convince myself that this is all part of improving.  If I was comfortable all of the time then I wouldn't be making progress. 

My legs feel a little beat up. They were pretty unresponsive for most of the run.  The last 2 miles felt really good but I'm not quite sure why it took 12 miles to warm up.

I never used to look forward to recovery days like I do now.  This training cycle is killing me.  I'm starting to have thoughts of cutting back and just training for a half marathon instead.

The schedule called for a 6 mile tempo run but I am racing a 5k on Saturday and I want to go in a little fresh so I decided to just run a few slightly slower than tempo miles.  After 3 easy miles I started my "tempo" run.  Plan was to run 6:40/mile as long as it felt reasonable comfortable.  After the first mile, I felt really worn out.  It was a lot of work to maintain the pace and my heart rate was higher than it should have been for that pace.  I only got in 3 tempo miles and it was a lot of work.  Ran 3 more easy miles to get home and they felt as much work as the tempo run.  I think that I may be a little over trained.  The training volume isn't more than I am used to but I think that I wasn't quite ready to jump into marathon training program.  I think that Mesa Falls is definitely out and I am now thinking about TOU because it gives me a few more weeks to get into shape.

Feeling a little better today.  I still felt clunky but at least I was able to get my legs to move.  Averaged 7:30/mile for the run and didn't feel like it was too much of an effort and my HR was where it should be for that pace.  Now I'm off to the lake to soak my legs.  It's going to be a good day.

I guess I should start this race report out like every one I write with a list of excuses why I didn't think I would do well.  My legs have been dead for 2 weeks, I was up too late last night (Kathie and Teena - the answer to your question is yes), and my stomach was really unsettled this morning.  I didn't wake up as early as I wanted so I rushed to the race to register and get in a couple of warm up miles.  My plan was to stick with Trevor (from the running club) as long as I could.  Started out a little ahead of him until we hit the hill at about the 1/2 mile mark.  He gapped me going up the hill and maintained the lead the rest of the race.  I didn't want to kill myself on the uphill so I just ran at a controlled pace.  Felt good until a guy pushing a stroller passed me going uphill.  Hit the first mile in 6:07 (6 seconds faster than last year).  After the 1 mile marker, the course drops but for some reason it was really difficult to pick up the pace.  Was only able to run this in 6:03 (identical to last year's split).  I felt decent during the last mile but did not have the desire to push at all.  I knew I could run faster but the desire wasn't there.  I was approaching puke pace and backed off.  I need to learn that even though I am nauseous I will not throw up and can push through it.  The 3rd mile split was 6:06 which was 6 seconds slower than last year.  During the last 0.1 I let a guy pass me and heard another coming up on me.  I pushed the pace hard but he slipped by me at the end.  To my credit he was half my age.  Finished in 18:50 which is identical to last year's time.  Despite my disappointment in myself for not pushing myself harder I am happy with the results because I expected something in the 19's.