How Much Discomfort Can I Tolerate?!

The 5k was two days too early. I felt good on my warmup, I shot out the door running faster than usual. Running every other day leaves my joints fresh and ready to roll, whereas when I run every day I need 2 miles of slow jogging before feeling comfortable. 

When I got to the woods I ran 5 x 1000m loops, so I got my 5k in. 

I felt like doing a steady medium distance run today, so I did a shortened South Farms loop. I have not been out there in a while, it was good to be running in the open spaces and to feel the strong wind repel my efforts. I ran most of the run at 8:15-8:30 pace.

Ran 2 miles to the arboretum, then decided the workout session would be 150m hill sprints at 100% effort. I was able to do 10, then I immediately went to the monkey bars and did strength exercises. The fast sprinting made my arm muscles feel like jelly as I did pullups, dips, and pushups. I guess I got into the anarobic zone today. 

My leg strength was solid and my form in control as I did the sprints. I'm in a good running place right now, not sure how long it will last. 

I have been thinking about running the Lookout Mountain 100k race on December 19th. I was made aware of this race from Greg's race report last year. His description of running along the rocky ridge at night made an impression on me. It took him 80 minutes to go 3 miles during that stretch - what a blow that must have been! The cost of traveling to Chatanooga is making me think twice about running it. I think I am in good enough shape to take on 62 miles of mountain running, though, and last night I dreamt I was running up and down mountains - I was enjoying myself, but it was not easy scaling the slopes. I will keep thinking about it, I need to make a decision soon.

Almost forgot, when I finished the monkey bar stuff I ran home, alternating fast and slow running.

Planned to take the day off since I have been having success with running every other day, but Rachel wanted to go to Kickapoo, so I decided I could not pass on the opportunity to run some tough and beautiful trails.

My energy was high and leg strength strong so I thought about further exploring the bike trails at the end of the Out & Back loop. I normally run the #6 trail which is on a ridge and brings me back to the Out & Back. Today when I got to #6 I turned left instead of right, hoping it would eventually loop back to the Out & Back. I was supposed to meet Rachel after 90 minutes of running, but I felt I was going to be late if the bike trails were longer than expected.

Once on the bike trails I was happy that I decided to explore, as I had some great views of various small lakes as I ran along a high ridge. The trail zig zagged and went up and down, it was good training for McNaughton. I passed onto the #4 trail, then #1, then #5, which eventually looped back to where I started at #6, so I took my usual direction on #6 at that point and returned to the Out & Back. The mileage of the bike trail segment was 4-5, and when I began the final 2 miles back to the car I was feeling pleasantly exhausted. My pace was faster than I would do for a long run, around 8:30 miles, with the final 2 miles at 7:30 pace. Total time spent running was 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I was planning to do a 2-3 hour long run tomorrow, but I will take the day off, do a speed session on Monday, and bump the long run to Wednesday. 1 hour and 40 minutes at a moderately hard pace is getting close to long run range, so I want to give myself a rest before going long again.

I forgot to mention that I saw 3 groups of bikers on the trails. In the first group someone saw my Farmdale shirt and said, "you've been to Farmdale!" (Farmdale is known for its bike trails). The second group was flying down a long, steep incline, which was fun to watch. The third group was 3 females and one male lead rider. I got the impression they were beginners because they were going slow enough where I caught and passed them - made me feel like I was flying down the trails :)