Got a good night's sleep before I headed out to join the Crackheads. Unfortunately, I think I left my legs in bed. Took for-freaking-EVER to get going. Really didn't get going until 11 miles or so, when the only other Crackhead doing 18 miles caught up with and passed me. I pulled back up beside her and we ran the last six miles or so together, which REALLY helped (so did the extensive downhill in that section, but I ran well with her after the downhill ended). Yet another reason to hook up with the pace bunnies in Memphis: I need someone to run with, talk to, distract me from the pain in my legs, etc. Ended up taking nearly 3:13 to do 18.2, which is slower than I had planned but a lot faster than I feared when I was stretching my hip flexors at the time Christy passed me on Kavanaugh. But I think (and Coach Hobbit agrees) that I've gotten to a back-off point. I need to cut the mileage or I'm going to get hurt -- not a good option with 49 days to go. This week was a bit of a backoff anyway, I'm gonna cut it a few more miles. Probably will still do Conway, but may skip or reduce the VO2 max run on Monday. | 