I am one with the levee and the levee with me

AM - 8 miles down the river trail. I still feel a little sluggish from the race, and my quad has been aching for the last 10 days or so at recovery pace. I think it's coming from the hip, but it's so dull it's hard to pinpoint. I'm trying to stretch and roll it out, but I can't tell if it's helping yet. At least it isn't getting worse - it's more of an irritation than anything.

PM - At first I planned on running 4 miles, but then decided I might as well do 5. Then I ran into Sasha running with his kids and added another one with them, so a total of 6 miles and change for this run. Relaxed pace throughout, and a good start for the week. 

AM - Easy 4 miles this morning.

PM - Took a break from studying to swing by the indoor track for a workout. I did 2x2miles with 5:00 rest between.

I planned to run them in 5:15 pace, but I felt a little sluggish on the first one. Mile splits of 5:18 and 5:21 after running the first laps at 5:10 pace. I took a quick bathroom break between the reps and that seemed to do the trick. I was planning anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes' rest depending on how I felt, and 3 minutes probably would have been adequate. 10:39 total time.

Anyway, the second rep felt great... I got a few laps into it expecting to start hurting, but I felt stronger the further I went. The laps fluctuated between 1:03 (5:15 pace) and 1:05 (5:25 pace) because I'm terrible at pacing myself. They say to do tempo work at a comfortably hard pace, and I think I tend to fall under the "comfortable" side a bit too much. The point of this workout was to push me out of that 5:25 - 5:30 pace comfort zone I get so used to. 5:15 pace was easily sustainable, I'm not sure why I kept slipping back.

A final lap in :59 closed this one out at 10:34 (5:20, 5:14 mile splits), and I felt good, better than expected. I'm pleased with the workout, the next one of these I'll have to cut the rest down, but I liked this workout. Average pace: 5:18.25
 

AM - 4 easy miles in the freezing cold. I love winter.

I just saw that yesterday I ran my 2000th mile of the year. Cool.

PM - Added 7 miles, although my left knee was acting up a bit. I ran at about 8:00 pace and it felt a little swollen. This usually happens once or twice a year, so I'm not too worried. I put some ice on it when I got home.... hopefully it will be better in a day or two.

AM - 3 easy miles this morning. The knee is still swollen but this wasn't as uncomfortable as last night.

PM - Added an easy 7. About 7:40 pace.

AM - 3 easy miles. Both knees were swollen this morning. Maybe it's time to get new shoes. Yesterday I counted more than 600 miles on them, but it seems like I just bought them. President Hinkcley said a house and a car were worthy objects to indebt yourself for, I wonder what he'd say about running shoes....

PM - After my last final, I had a little time to head to the indoor track for some speed work. I averaged 4 hours of sleep per night the last three nights and finals have beat me up pretty good, plus I hadn't eaten anything except some sausage burritos in the morning, but the workout went alright. I planned 3x1000m at 8:40 3k pace w/ 2:00 rests.

After a 12 minute warmup, I launched into the first one, finishing in 2:55.5. The second one started to hurt, but I finished in 2:54.6. The last one was very painful, but I manged a 2:55.0. So 8:45.1 total time.

This workout hurt more than I expected, I'm not sure if that's because I'm not in as good of shape as I thought or because I was tired. It's hard to tell. Either way, I was reasonably pleased with the effort.

AM - Easy 10 miles down the river trail.

PM - Added a gentle 5 up Canyon Rd.