Cursed Realm of the Faceless Ghost

By the time I got to the gym, this workout seemed easier than it did the first time I saw it on my schedule. But by the time I was done it seemed harder. One mile warmup, five miles at "marathon pace" (I won't embarrass myself by stating the pace), then a half mile at 5K pace tacked on immediately after. It was pretty good. And the basic principal that when you run faster the miles go by faster is a real bonus on the treadmill.

I am a little worried that my right knee is starting to hurt, though. I expected it to happen at some point, but if it really is happening now it's a little ridiculous. At the very least it's an indication that I'm not made to be a runner. McDougall my say otherwise, but I'd say most of us aren't born to run. It's been so long that we as a species have had any real need to run that I'm pretty sure many of our running adaptations have found their way out of the gene pool. We may be fatter, but I'll bet we're a lot smarter than prehistoric humans, too.

My patience with the treadmill is starting to wear thin, so Catherine suggested I head to campus and run on the indoor track this evening. I did, and it was a good evening. It smells funny and it's crowded, but it was nice to be able to run and actually go somewhere, even if it was just in circles. I think for the next while I may do all my steady miles on the track and save the treadmill for intervals and tempo. 

Today's workout was relatively short in both time and distance (though more so in distance), but it was still pretty tough. The workout schedule called for .10 mile hill repeats with .10 mile "recoveries" back downhill at marathon pace. But I had no idea how to make that work on a treadmill (even though the gym treadmills go downhill, it takes forever for the machine to move up and down). So instead, I set the treadmill to 12 percent and ran my intervals at 7:00 and walked my recoveries at about 17:00. It was much harder than I thought it would be, and by the end I was having trouble breathing after each interval. So I guess that means it was a good workout. 

Six easy miles at the indoor track. Almost the exact same as Tuesday's run, only in the morning. 

I have a pretty fierce sore throat today. Believe it or not, that means that at least one person in our house has been sick since Christmas day. I figure we're due for a break soon.

Anyway, I still ran. I just plodded along at a 9:00 pace on the treadmill, late at night. Sigh. 

Oh, for shame. The schedule called for nine miles, but I only ran 9. I was on the short indoor track at BYU, and I'm still feeling a bit sick, so I had had it pretty early. I chugged along fora  while, but after 64 laps I was done. The remorse for quitting early hit early and hard. So much so that I may sneak out for another mile or two tonight, just to make things right. Or as right as I can make them after the fact.