Although my mileage is not where I would like it to be, I was happy with this week’s efforts as I put in a few hard, solid workouts.  Individually they might not be that impressive, but with heavy load the previous week, I was glad my body is starting to respond a bit.  Coming from a very low mileage background growing up, I’ve learned it takes my legs a few weeks to get to the point where 80-85 weekly miles doesn’t completely disintegrate my legs. I only get the chance to run a tempo run once a month, so I was a bit disappointed as I didn’t knock it out of the park. It was a bit windy that day, but the fact is that 5:20 pace still feels way too fast for me to be capable to run it for 13.1 miles.

Because of the cumulative fatigue, I took a day off in the middle of the week – which I didn’t even commit to doing, so I didn’t reap all of the benefits. When I wake up at 4:30 am, and am not as motivated as I should be, I sit on the couch and stare at the clock until a certain time. For instance, if it is 4:36, I will give myself until 4:40 before starting my stretches/putting on my running clothes. I intently stare at the clock to make the minutes feel longer – which unbelievably has the opposite effect as it did in high school. Anyways, I was up early, put on all of my running gear, stretched, but just knew something was off. Had the inner battle in my head deciding if taking a day off is better for my running than to fight through it…and 20 minutes later I decided to head back to bed.  My legs felt better on Friday’s progression run, so looks like I made the right decision.

Was very pleased with the long run.  My first two miles were around 7 minutes with the remaining 20 at 6:00-6:25.  The most satisfying part of this run was the fact that I felt heavy starting at about mile 4. Unlike last week where 6:00 pace felt like 8 min pace, my legs were tired within the first few miles.  It was great to respond in a way that I haven’t for a long time and find a groove for the remaining run. Longest run since Sept. and was pumped to have back to back weeks with 20+ mile long runs.

Jan 14-20