M'kay

Spent the day doing trail work on the West Boundary Trail inside Mt. Rainier to fulfill my volunteer trail work requirement for Cascade Crest 100.  Aside from the hike into and out from the work site, most of the work was strength training, not cardio.  

LM warmup, 8 miles in 1:09:08, 8:38/mi & stretching.

Left leg/hip still getting tight after about 1/4 mile.  Didn't really loosen up until about mile 6 today, even with stopping to stretch for the first few miles periodically.  Stretching would help for about 100 meters, then the tightness would return.   I guess the good news is that I can still run and things loosen up eventually, but eventually seems to get farther and farther by the day.  I think I need to reboot my leg.

LM warmup, 12.09 miles in 1:36:15, 7:58/mi, HR 152, w/ 3+ mi warmup, 10 x 1/4 mile hill sprints with walk/jog down recoveries, and 3+ mile cooldown.  Post run-stretching.

Cool (68F) and humid.  Stretching and rolling helped last night.....still got tight around the 1/2 mile mark but managed to keep the warmup (uphill) miles under a 9 min/mi pace.  Stopped to stretch a few times and things were definitely better but also definitely not fixed.  Actually, it seemed like my hip flexors and adductors were quickly tired, which seemed to cause the other muscles to start contracting when they shouldn't normally, so maybe this is also muscle weakness and others are compensating.  Likely a mix of both.

Hill sprints went pretty well.  The first 3 were slower....1:38-1:40.  Next was 1:33, but the last 6 were all 1:29-1:31, so I managed to knock some rust off and get some good work in.  The wheels really felt like they came off for the last 2, but the numbers showed consistent times.  The cooldown was a bit of a death march.  On one hand, my legs were shot.  On the other hand, I wanted to get my overall pace beneath the 8 min/mi mark, so the closing miles were all in the low 7s, which was really tough.  No left hip/leg tightness during that stretch, so evidently its just a warmup thing.

LM warmup, 8.07 miles in 1:07:48, 8:24/mi, HR 146, 10 x 12 sec Hill Sprints & stretching.

Rainy (61F).  Left leg/hip got tight and tired again at 1/2 mile mark, more tired than tight.  Labored through that for the next few miles and it got marginally better, but the tired hip flexor/adductor persisted and the pace showed.

Time to add hill sprints back into the mix.  Boy, were they miserably slow.  Okay, I definitely have a muscular fitness issue I need to fix. 

LM warmup, 8.34 miles in 1:08:37, 8:14/mi, HR 151 & stretching.

Waited too long to record this run so I've forgotten most of the details, but the early paces indicate that I'm still having issues with my left hip.  If I recall correctly, I ran for about 2.25 miles and nearly quit, stopped for a potty break, then resumed the rest of the run.