I just did some easy miles today. Yesterday and slightly today I could feel a little soreness in my quads in the front. My husband thinks that's from the downhill. Looks like I'll need to add more downhill running into my workouts. In another month or so I'll feel safe running up the canyon by myself - it just needs to get a little bit busier up there - and I'll try to push the pace when I come down.
So I looked at the results from Saturday's 9K and by doing the math I figured if I'd continued on pace I would have run a 39:52. So most likely I would have slowed down a little bit and maybe been just over 40 minutes. Hey - that is pretty darn good for this gal. I've only run one other 10K and I think it was somewhere around 44 minutes.
The next race will be a half-marathon, either at Thanksgiving Point in April or the Provo half-marathon at the beginning of May. It all depends on how things shake out in my life over the next few weeks.
Ok, so I'm still feeling a little tight in the quads and a little worn out from the race. I thought I was fine over the weekend but my running has been really lethargic this week. I noticed especially when I went downhill that my legs didn't feel quite right. Since the Utah Valley marathon will be lots of downhill I think my next hill workout I'll go hard up and down hill and then do a flat quarter mile recovery. Plus - I NEED SLEEP! There is plenty that is keeping me busy, but I'm also just taking a half-hour or hour at night to do nothing. I think it would be better to do nothing with my eyes closed instead of cruising around the internet doing nothing.
Easy miles today that felt very blah. Hopefully I have the oomph for another speed work-out tomorrow. I'm still not positive about what I'll be doing. I'm going back and forth between mile repeats or a tempo/MP run. I'm starting to think it might be good to dial in the MP pace. That means tonight I need to commit to a goal time for this marathon - scary.
My garmin mishaps are starting to get ridiculous. Today I turned my garmin on at my sister's only to see it was out of batteries. So I just ran a course where I knew distances and repeated certain sections because I knew exactly how far they were - and judged my speed by how it felt. I did a 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles MP (supposedly), 1/2 easy, 3 miles tempo (maybe), 1/2 mile easy, and then a final mile at MP (hmmmm...yeah, they all kinda felt the same - not comfortable). I finished with a couple of miles cool-down. As of before I started the run I was going to do 2 more miles at the end, not just 1 mile, but I WAS NOT feeling it today. Maybe this is just the way I feel when I train though and I need to adjust and work through it mentally. Anyway - tomorrow I'm taking a rest day and then I'll do 16 miles on Saturday. The plan is to really take those 16 easy and hopefully feel more fresh next week.
It was nice to take yesterday off. I think my body really appreciated it. I was going to go 16 today, but my babysitter cancelled because she got the stomach flu so I had to call on my sister last minute. I was grateful just to get the 14 in. It was in the evening on a cool but sunny day - life felt awfully good. My pace was 7:54. I'm really hoping to feel better this next week.