Winning Back What I Lost

AM: Raining this morning so I took the workout inside to the TM.  Quads are very sore from Saturday's race.  Slow and easy to get all of that lactic acid out.  Another short, easy workout tonight. 

PM: Another short, easy TM run to get the mileage quota for the day.  My quads are toast. Had an extremely hard time w/ the stairs at home and work today. I felt so good after the race on Saturday that I'm more than a little surprised to be so sore right now.  I'm going to stretch and ice tonight and hopefully most of it will work its way out of my muscles tonight. 

PM: Another slow and easy run on a cool evening.  We're getting some sunshine now but the temp still dips into the 30's at night.  My quads are better than yesterday but still thrashed. Going upstairs is tolerable now but going downstairs is still excruciating. Took me a couple of miles just to loosen up and I decided just to keep it slow and steady.  I've got a 20+ miler planned for the weekend and I'm just trying to get some mileage and allow the body to recover at the same time.  Those two goals may be incompatible. 

PM:  Raining again.  Easy progressive run on the TM.  Started very slow and ended @ 8:00/mi pace for last 1.5M.  Quads and calves feeling better but now my hamstring tightness has returned. 

PM: 3M warmup; 7M @ 7:45/mi avg pace; cool.  Wanted to run this tempo closer to 7:30/mi pace but just didn't have it in me. Overall pace was right @ current marathon pace.  Very cool evening w/ a stiff breeze.  Major stomach ache didn't help my flow.  On the upside, my leg soreness is pretty much gone. 

Noon: Beautiful sunshiny day.  Ran an out and back on the GB from the Firefighter's Memorial to Municipal Park. Suffering from some tired legs after last night's workout.  My heart-rate started out elevated and I could never get it under control even though my pace was relaxed.  Need get some quality rest tonight for tomorrow's long run. 

10AM:  Easy long run.  That is if you can ever consider 20+ miles "easy."  Beautiful conditions, sunny and temp in the 50's w/ 10mph breeze.  Ran a 12M loop to start so that I could stop by the house and get some agua.  I sort of figured that it would be hard to start up again and it was.  The advantage is not having to carry any water w/ me. The second loop was 8+ miles. Did the whole 20 miler pretty much w/o fuel. Had half of a granola bar that I got in last weeks race.  After 19 miles I was spent and sort of limped home against a mild headwind.  This makes two 20 milers and a hard trail half marathon race in the last 4 weeks.