I just didn’t feel like riding 8 miles on the bike on Monday but the nagging part of me said I should do some form of cross training. Or something. So I decided to work in a bit of strength training with a kettle bell work out. It was short but intense and I felt like I had done something productive. At least until Tuesday morning.
Oh crap, it hurt to move. My thighs were in pain, hehe. I spent the day trying not walk like a duck and wearing heals was not helping. Needless to say, Tuesday night’s run was a little rough. I completed my 3.5 miles but my legs were so stiff and sore. I think I hurt less after my last half marathon. How sad is that? Each lap around the park just seemed slower and slower. In reality there was only a 13 second gap between mile 1 pace and mile 3, but let’s be honest, they started out slow. Wednesday was a much needed Slacker day.
Which brought me to Thursday, my long day. After work, I planned to run there before heading out to class. My legs still hurt; seriously?! I left work, running the same route as last week, however this time I didn’t get lost. I figured I would base my distance on my pace. If I was still dragging and feeling lame, I would turn around at the service road, the 1.75 mile mark. If I was feeling ok, I would push on to the 2 mile mark then turn around.
The day was bright and sunny, so opposite of last week’s heavy fog, same temperature thankfully. I enjoyed the scenery along the way; it was pretty in the sunlight. I felt good, so I pushed on to the natural history museum before turning around. I knew I was going to slow down a bit on the way back as it was mostly uphill, but I pushed on. Last week I took 2 brief walk breaks and this week I just powered through.
Got to my car and was pretty pumped, figured I at least beat last weeks’ time. So I checked my Nike+; and nope. I was slower by 28 seconds. Ugh.
I feel like I am in a running funk. I just feel frustrated with the workouts I have completed the last week or so. Maybe if I didn’t have 2 big races coming up, I wouldn’t care. But I do and right now I feel like I am getting slower not quicker. I realize that any run is better than no run but I had finally started to see progress these last 6 months. I still have a 6 miler that I need to do this weekend, maybe I should just do that as an easy run?
On the upside, we got out of class early, which means I made it home before 10 last night. And I got to see this view on the way to work this morning:
Slacker Runner 