I can't believe how wrecked I am after Lake Mountain on Tuesday! I also can't believe that I am in that bad of shape after only taking 2 weeks off. I thought I would be able to hang, which I wasn't, and then I thought I would be sore but ok, which was also not really true. I had a hard time walking all day yesterday and woke up stiff again today. I decided I should push through the stiffness and just get a few miles in before gorging myself this afternoon. A few days ago I contemplated either signing up for the turkey leg 5k in Ftown or just bandit running it. When I woke up this morning it was pretty clear that neither of those would be good options. I wouldn't be able to go fast enough to make it worth paying for and my hobble jog was going to look pretty silly with the other runners. So I just did 6 on the road around the neighborhood. Although stiff I started out ok. 8 minute mile for the first mile, but it is slightly downhill. Every mile after that was slower and my last mile was 9:36. My next scheduled race is a 5K in St. George in January. Part of the runners series. I thought I would be done with the Marathon after this year and start focusing on trails more. After running the race though, I've decided that I have to keep at it until I beat it. And by beat it I mean at least get a sub 3 hour time. So, the plan. Hopefully typing out for the world to see will help keep me honest. I need to run 6 days a week and get my weekly milage back up to 50-60 over the next month. Then I need to start mixing in track workouts to get my speed up. I would really like to break 21 minutes in January, something I've never done before. It would be even better if I could break 20 minutes. Hopefully with some consistency I can make that happen soon. | 