my makeup may be flaking

Well, things didn't go as planned.  I made it to the first checkpoint in 6:13, which was 6 seconds slow (5:55 first mile).  But I had the wind at my back so I should have been fast.  However my legs were feeling pretty heavy and I didn't think that I could really go any faster.  That's only a little faster than I ended my long run last Sunday! I hoped that maybe I would start to feel better, but instead I started to feel worse, alot worse.  My legs were burning and demanding that I stop immediately.  Who knows how the run would have turned out, but I knew that continuing would have been a bad idea in the long run.  So I stopped my watch and slowed to about 9 minute pace and ran home.

I think the problem is that I've been trying to fit in too many workouts recently.  I had a really tough run on Tuesday, but had been feeling fine.  I'm going to do easy mileage for a few days and then I'm going to try to tackle then 20miler in under 2:05.  I think that more reflects the type of shape that I'm in right now.

Did Sugarhouse twice.  pace was 7:05.  Started to feel better on the second loop, but I felt sluggish just like yesterday.

Ran up to the mountains and back. There was actually about 1000ft of climbing involved, which I guess inflates my 7:20 pace a bit.  Especially as I didn't really go that fast on the way back.

Another pretty relaxed run that started at around 7:30 pace and progressed down to around 6:30. Ran up 2700S to 2000E then came down Sunnyside and finished with a little in Liberty park.

6:06 pace! So, I got myself so redemption for Sunday! The run went off better than I would have hoped. This course includes the half marathon course that I made plus quite a bit more. So yeah its not really a race, but it was a tough effort. I was thinking I could do around 2:05, but saw that I was actually in reach of going under two hours! I was tiring/slowing at the end and didn't want to completely destroy myself to chase such an arbitrary thing when I was well inside my goal pace. Previous best on this course was 2:12 and my typical range is 2:30-2:40.

Just as I learnt alot from Sunday's failure, I also learnt alot from today.  I knew I was capable of such a thing but didn't know how it would feel. I got out a little too fast (18:35 5k, followed by 18:18, followed by 18:37 and hit 10 miles in 59:47) but it didn't really seem to matter at those speeds, I kind of recovered while still running fast.  My shins tightened up briefly in the second 5k perhaps due to the tough pace but it didn't last.  I felt really good in miles 11 and 12, I was just fully warmed up, loose and my endorphins were kicking in. Then I noticed that my right shoulder was starting to tighten up, that happens to me alot, but it didn't last. There are some rolling hills on 5300S and I handled them fine although in the end my butt started to get tired. At the end I was mostly conscious of the pain in my butt and of a general nausea.  I didn't bonk at all, I felt as I had no problem finishing with a 6 minute mile even though my legs were getting weak and I was nauseous. The nausia is probably due to the extended period of ab flexing, i don't know what to do about that.  And as for the weakness, I guess my mileage hasn't been high enough, I haven't done enough longer faster runs.

As this weeks theme is recovery, I gave myself a pretty good rest after yesterday. My only real activity was to run up to East High School to watch the HS track meet. My roommate has just started helping out with the team, so I thought I'd give them some support. I wasn't really sure who did well or not, as I didn't know any of their PRs, but If I keep going I should get a pretty good idea though. There was one girl who ran 5:35 in the mile, which is obviously good.

So despite all the recovery I took this week, I'm only about 5 miles less than I wanted it to be.  I finished up the week with a pretty legit base run.  I did my Sugarhouse Thrice course in a new fastest time (1:08:52) which comes out to 6:19 pace. It was a pretty uneventful run, although I did actually measure my stride rate while I was running.  It turned out to be 166 strides per minute which is much faster than I thought I would be. I think I'm going to start recording this during all of my runs to see how it varies. My last mile today was probably about 5:40.