I am one with the levee and the levee with me

Easy 8 from my apt, still haven't found any good trails this side of town. Lunges.

AM - Easy 4.

PM - 10 easy with the team. Drills.

6x1600m workout at Cornwall Park. Course has a nice steep hill just after the 1/4 mile, then some rollers from there to 3/4 mile, then steep downhill and back to the start the last 1/4. Challenging course. 3:00 rests.

Splits went like this:

5:03

5:00

4:57 

4:53 (Dak came up and led me on this one, helped out a lot)

4:54

4:51 (Big group came up on my shoulder and helped out the last half)

Tough workout, but I finally feel like I pushed the limits of my current fitness. Aerobically, I was doing fine -- measured the HR at 160 right after the last repeat. My legs, however, felt fatigued and wanted to give out on me several times over the last 2 reps. This is a new sensation for this season, and I chalk it up to biking to campus this morning. I haven't been on a bike in awhile, and the climb up to campus made my legs burn. The team also had an amazing workout as I had 7 or 8 guys right on my heels the whole way. Exciting things to come.

AM - 4 easy from the apt. I finally found a trail that cuts right through my neighborhood. Somehow I've been running blindly by it each morning. My legs felt surprisingly good, and I didn't have any of the muscle fatigue I was expecting after yesterday's workout.

PM - Muscle fatigue showed up this afternoon, probably due to all the hills around campus. 10 miles super easy (8:00ish) to Whatcom Falls. 

Medium 5-mile loop called Rollercoaster, most of it at around 6:00 pace with surging on the hills. I hate saying this, but there was nothing I enjoyed about this run besides the fact I can run and am not injured. I'm not recovered from Tuesday yet, and the last thing my legs wanted to do was push some hills and tempo, even at 6:00 pace. But oh well, I'll get time to rest and recover. 

Halfway through the run I was thinking, "I should be loving this. Where's that positive attitude I've had, where's the fresh legs I've been getting?" But I realized that some days are just going to be like this. It's okay to not feel good, to want to take it easy, to not enjoy every single run. It's part of the daily grind.

At the same time, I am surprised at how heavy my legs feel. The last two workouts, I've felt ready to go the next day, but this week has been different. I did push this workout a bit more, but I'm also worried about iron levels. I got my blood checked a few weeks ago, and I'm lower than I'd like to be despite taking large doses of iron for the last few months. If I'm still feeling fatigued this time next week, I may need to make some changes.

Well it seems the running gods smote me today for saying that last week's race was so easy. Today's race pretty much hurt start to finish. 

We raced at 11:30, and by then the sun was beating down on us and the course had heated up to close to 90 degrees. Blazing hot for Spokane. At the start line, I was surprised to see one of my former runners from Kamiakin right next to me. It was really cool to be lining up next to him, and we wished each other good luck. I almost went down in the first 100m -- I got lost in the crowd of 250 runners and didn't notice the hill that rose up right past the start line. Duh. Somehow I stayed on my feet.

They only had the mile and 4k marked, and I'm pretty sure neither was accurate. I reached the mile mark in 5:11 in about 80th place and started to work my way up. The nice thing about not having distance markers is it forced me to pay more attention to the people around me. I just focused on rolling up all the guys who had gone out too fast. You'd think by college people would figure out pacing.

By what must have been two miles into the race, my legs were aching and I was thinking I might be in trouble. I caught up to one of my teammates right after the 4k mark (12:20, like I said, probably not accurate), and on the long downhill I finally started to feel good. I tried to pull him along with me, but just focused on reaching the next pack ahead of me.

The good feeling didn't last long. As I came into where mile 4 should've been, I had a large pack about 30-50m ahead. I was still feeling good and I thought I could catch them. But as I went up the next rise, I felt a tremendous burn in my legs. I stumbled and felt like my legs might go out. As I crested, I tried to put in a little surge to get the momentum back, but I couldn't quite get up to speed. The pack was still coming back, but much more slowly now. My legs continued to buckle, and I started to think that just getting to the finish would be great. I glanced at my watch, figured I had about 3:00 left, and tried to throw in another surge.

I caught one more guy, and had to work hard rounding the final turn to keep him behind me. I was so happy to cross the line on my feet and without losing a spot.

Considering how hard this week has been, I'm really happy with how the race went. Despite being so tired, I still had a kick and was nearly able to run as fast as the Sundodger course. This course is pretty flat, but the grass is deep and there are all kinds of little rises and twists and turns that prevent you from getting into a good rhythm. Should be a great course for nationals.