[S]he Conquers Who Endures

I was planning on running 12 miles today, but after my 22 miler Saturday and how my legs feel today I think a recovery run is in order! 5 miles at 9:15 min/mi pace with 6x0.1 mile strides and 0.1 mile walking recoveries. Stride paces were: 6:25, 5:47, 5:39, 5:46, 5:32, 5:40 min/mile. For avg pace of 5:48 min/mi - conservative. My legs felt like they were going to break in the beginning of the run and I felt a little spring in my step towards the end. :)

Dangit! I just found out I was "given" one of my running goals. I have been working towards earning a spot in Corral A for the past couple years in Chicago's Shamrock Shuffle (the largest 8k in the US). They just announced that now that I'm so close to going sub 21:00 in a 5k (time to get into Corral A), they are now only requiring a time of < 23:00 in a 5k to get into Corral A for females! That's it, no mental battles during a race, no adrenaline rush when I cross the finish just shy of 21:00, no sense of accomplishment. Boo!! Now that they shifted all time goals for females (5k, 8k, 10k, etc), I don't know what to put as my shorter race running goals!!! Someone help a sister out, I have a 10k Saturday!!

12 miles at steady state pace. I was worried how this would go after my super hard run Saturday. Pulled a 7:39 min/mi average pace for 12 miles. Not too shabby on tired legs! My legs felt very injury prone so I focused on running with good form so I would break anything. I think this is good training for learning to run with fatigue like at the end of the marathon. :)

Stretch, recovery drink, epsom salt bath, trigger point ball massage, ice, recovery socks, and to bed early. Can't do much more than that to speed recovery! 

8 miles total with 5x600m repeats 400m recovery jog. This was supposed to be an indoor track workout, but all of Cambridge lost power so hit the outdoor track instead. It was really, really cold and windy but nothing is going to stop me from reaching my goal. Suggested pace by Pfitzinger is 5k race pace, by Cambridge coach 6 sec faster than 5k race pace. I haven't run a 5k since April (7:18 min/mi) so I have no idea what my 5k race pace is so just going by "feel". I haven't done a whole lot of track work in my life, so I'm assuming a VO2max feel is where you are out of breath and gasping for air at the end? My splits were:

2:22.49

2:24.15

2:26.12

2:23.97

2:19.62

First 2 repeats where painful and I had jello legs. The last repeat felt the best. My average pace was 6:24 min/mi!!! I have no idea how I could pull a 6:30 min/mi pace for a 5k. Hmm...Maybe I was just pushing too hard? 

Recovery day. Bikram am, massage pm. I am supposed to race a 10k tomorrow and run 17 miles Sunday. Kinda worried about this, my knee is starting to act up from an old injury, but I think it's from muscle tightness. Hopefully massage will work it out and my legs will hold up. I'm getting close to the marathon, body please don't fail me now!

2.2 mile warmup, 10k race, 2.2 mile cool down. Snowy and hilly! Got to wear my yak trax. :) This was a beautiful but difficult race for me. I'm coming off a killer week last week and I knew I had 17 miles to tackle the next day. Regardless, I gave it my all. Finished in 7:21 min/mile pace. Not too shabby! Won 2nd overall female and 1st in my age group. Gotta recover up for 17 tomorrow!