The Week of 04/07/2014: Exhaustion:1, Dread:0

Winter has actually been banished from our lands.  The snow is melted everywhere except for small patches that cling shamefully to the north side of houses.  That is not to say that seasonal afflictions are not still running rampant across our lands; my daughter was good enough to share her cold with me.  The affliction made an attempt to migrate into my lungs, which kept me off the roads for two days this week.  I managed to beat it back, and ended the week on my longest run of the year so far.

Monday 04/07/2014

Scheduled:  6 Mile Recovery Run I opted to sleep in in the morning, and with my skipped Friday & Saturday workouts from last week it looked like I was perched to go plunging headlong back into the abyss of laziness.  but the weather today was phenomenal, and I opted to get my run in after work.  It was beautiful running weather, all but the last mile the sun was high enough to keep me warm and my sunglasses on. I did wear the Asics GT-1000' for this run, and even though things didn't bother me too much during the run, the stiffness the next day convinced me that it is definitely the shoes that have been causing the problem.

Tuesday 04/08/2014

Scheduled:  10 Miles, 8 Mile Tempo @ GMP I knew as soon as I woke up that running in the Asics yesterday had been a mistake.  It felt like somebody had been working over my right heel and plantar fascia with a pickax while I was sleeping.  I did my gentle stretches and was able to get things down to a dull roar.  I donned my gear, laced up the Nike Lunar glides and headed out the door. I took it especially easy in the first couple of miles, and allowed everything the time it needed to loosen up.  The plan was to start an 8 mile tempo at the two mile mark but I really didn't feel up to it.   Instead I changed my plan to start the tempo at the 5 mile mark and just make it a 5.  About midway through the third mile I surmised that it was taking a lot more effort than it should have been to hold my pace, so at mile 8 I backed off to recovery pace for the last 2 miles. I'm not sure how much of it can be chalked up to sore feet and how much to just general crappy feeling from getting over a cold, but in any event it wasn't my best day out there today.  But in the end I did get the run in, and a three mile tempo is better than a zero mile tempo.

Wednesday 04/09/2014

Scheduled:  6 Mile Recovery Run As of last night my cough was getting more and more persistent; I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and pulled the plug on my planned run for today.  By this evening I loaded up on Nyquil  & decided to set my alarm for tomorrow and see how I feel in the morning.

Thursday 04/10/2014

Scheduled: 8 Miles, 6 Mile Tempo @ HMP I woke up at 4AM, ahead of my alarm.  I was still pretty loopy from the cold meds, also I had that tingly feeling that I get in my legs, that in my imagination I equate to the sensation that accompanies the microtears in my muscles knitting themselves back together and getting stronger.  I have no idea if that is what is really going on or not, but it is a nice vision and who am I to argue with positive thinking? In any event between my buzzing head and my tingling legs, I decided to re-set the alarm, sleep in and skip running this morning.  The plan for the rest of the week is to get in my swim tomorrow morning, my long run in on Saturday and do a makeup recovery run on Sunday.

Friday 04/11/2014

Scheduled: XT (Swimming) OK so that Nyquil is serious stuff.  Two nights in a row where I took it, woke up once in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and when it was time to actually wake up, was nowhere to be found.  By the time I actually regained consciousness this morning I had been snoozing my alarm for over an hour and I was supposed to already be in the locker room getting ready to swim, not still at home in my bed. I plan to get back on track with my regularly scheduled long run tomorrow and a makeup run on Sunday.  I haven't decided if that will be a recovery run or to make up the missed tempo run yesterday or not; a lot of that will depend upon how I feel after the long run.

Saturday 04/12/2014

Scheduled: 12 Mile Long Run 47º, Overcast, rainy & windy.  After a couple of days off it felt really good to get back out on the road again.  That temperature was deceptive, I nearly attempted this run in shorts.  But somewhere in the back of my mind I thought to myself about how cold it can get over the course of a long run.  The back of my mind and my ass must be closely connected, because my ass thanked me later.  the rain was very light and didn't bother me much, though with the wind the dampness made things a little uncomfortable, even in tights. I did somewhat make up the missed Thursday workout insofar as I opted to make the last 4 miles of this run a tempo @ marathon pace.  Strange thoughts permeate my mind during long runs, especially in the later stages.  I had mapped out my course on Google; I knew that it was a 12 mile course.  But somewhere in my head when I got within a mile of home this thought emerged (perhaps more a sense of dread than a thought), that I was only going to cover 11 miles instead of the 12 that I had planned. As  I got closer and closer to home I started thinking about a trail loop up ahead, that I should hang a right on it & add another mile onto my run to ensure that I covered the distance.  I don't know whether or not I had temporarily lost my faculties due to exhaustion brought on by the tempo run, but I can say for certain that it was the exhaustion brought on by the tempo run that caused me to keep going straight when the trail presented itself.  You could have told me that there was a pot of gold 50 yards down the trail and I wouldn't have turned for it. Not long after that the lap alarm went off on my watch:  12 miles.  Exhaustion:1, Dread:0.

Sunday 04/13/2014

Scheduled: REST Earlier in the week I had notions of running a makeup run today.  I certainly woke up early enough to get a run in.  But as I lay in bed doing circles with my feet and checking for aches and pains I determined that my tired feet and ankles would benefit more from the rest than they would from the miles.  So, I stuck with the planned event of the day, which was to rest.