After bailing on my attempt at a workout last Fri, I decided to make another try at it. After getting my deer last Sat, I now had more free time to run during daylight [although I was still busy hiking into new areas to scout out places to put tree stands for my hunting buddy to hunt from and checking trail cameras we had already set out]. I drove the ten miles back down to where there was a 2 mile stretch that was less steep [still hilly] than the roads around camp. Right away I could tell that it wasn't happening again. I couldn't get my warmup pace much under 9 min without pushing it and it was only slightly uphill. I just decided to go 7 miles at whatever pace my legs defaulted to which was a slow 9:24 AP. I was a little baffled at my lack of energy again after 2 days of no running. I was doing more hiking than this mixed in with my training back in Sept getting ready for St George and it didn't affect me this much. The altitude [7,000 ft at camp but a little less where doing this run] is just a little over 2,000 ft higher than home. I was running earlier this year while on a hunting trip at similar altitude and at Yellowstone at 8000 ft and felt like it only affected me slightly. I had carried my deer out of the bottom of a canyon [where I had left it to cool quicker] the night before. It only weight 80 lbs dressed and it was just over 1/4 mile to camp at the top but it was pretty steep and worked my legs different than they are used to. I suspect it affected me more than I thought along with the altitude and hiking thrown in.
| 