[S]he Conquers Who Endures

The hilly Cape Ann 25k I've been looking forward to! My body was definitely not in good shape to be racing this, but I ran with a friend and I just wanted to get a good hilly workout in. We went out too fast because I bonked at the end and had to walk which I don't do in races! I made it to mile 13 ish at an 8:26 min/mi ap, decent long run pace with hills! Then with walking, texting a friend bc I lost my head, I ended at 8:57 min/mi ap. I'm trying to look at this race as a celebration of being able to run so far on hills with a healthy foot. I'm overhauling my training after I finally realized I need to finally let go of a lot of the cross training, and stop doing three a days with super hard days alternated by med effort days. 

Total elevation gain: 564 ft

RECOVERY! 

Deep tissue massage following by Restore and Renew Yoga. First time I tried this class, it felt too easy which is what I was aiming for and worked out a lot of residual tightness in my hips. My legs felt like they ran a marathon yesterday, but are healing up quickly!

This was meant to be 4 miles recovery at 9:30 min/mi ap, but I ran with the girls in my group so it ended up being 6.5 miles at 8:43 min/mi ap. I felt like I was getting a slight bounce in my step back. I hope this is a sign my fatigue is fading.

I felt like I had so much time on my hands today after not having weights after my run and not having to pack by bag to go waterjogging later! Just a run and foam rolling for me today.

Interval workout on the treadmilll at 1% incline. 1 mile wu, then 3x0.5 mi at 6:37/6:35/6:35 paces with 2:50 recovery between, then 10 mins at 7:18 min/mi pace. It was a baby version of interval to ease back into them, but longer than last Saturday's. I felt so relaxed on the 800s, it was pretty weird. This was a really good confidence booster for me. I finished feeling like I could do more.

Ate a picky bar right away with some water, then did just a little bit of pt exercises and some abs.

No more workouts for the rest of the day!

My energy level is definitely coming up. I'm pretty surprised by that after that hard 25k on Monday. I am taking more iron and no longer taking it with calcium. I think it's kind of early for iron to be brining up my energy levels. Must have been too much crosstraining. Reducing the crosstraining is also giving me more time in the day which is reducing my stress as well. I think my new plan is working! I am scheduled to hit 48 miles this week, which at this point feels completely doable - my highest weekly mileage since injury. 

4 miles easy with 5x100 m strides. Strides were: 5:37/5:56/5:34/5:38/5:32/5:52 min/mi pace. AP for entire run was 9:24 min/mi. The strides felt really nice and relaxed.

16 easier long miles than Monday! I woke up and my resting hr was 41, the lowest it's been since all this bad fatigue set in. I met up with an old friend in Chicago who wanted to go no faster than 8:30 min/mi AP. Well, he was pushing the pace the entire time faster than that, but we tried to stay closer to 830s. My body really couldn't go much faster. My legs were screaming pretty bad at mile 10, much, much more than normal and this route was pretty flat. I blame my shoes. I think they are too worn for long runs. Our AP was 8:23 min/mi with the last mile at 7:47. A decent pace especially after my run Monday I think. I went to the store after to replace my Chicago shoes with the Cortana 3's! They seem a bit different, and I am excited to test them out. 

That's 48 weekly miles for me. My most mileage post injury.