Surprise, Surprise!!

Monday I felt about as bad as I expected. Whenever I start to climb up in mileage, both overall volume as well as increased long run mileage, I expect my Monday's runs to be a bit slow with less energy. I didn't disappoint myself as the easy, recovery-type run was just that. Slow and easy. The one thing that keeps me going on mornings like yesterday is the fact I know my legs need the flushing and I should, as long as my nutrition was good, indeed feel better. Within a half of mile my legs were getting loose and I settled in my recovery pace for the entire loop.

1:04:00 8 miles

This morning was the surprise. Forty-Eight hours post 20 miler and I made my way out to do a 'steady-state' run of 6 miles in the middle of a near 11 mile loop. I didn't know what to expect from my legs but I felt decent enough on the warm up to give a solid effort. The first half mile or so of these types of runs often sends a negative feeling as the shift in pace can throw you. I've learned not to worry about the watch until after the mile marker and adjust as needed. Today's faster effort started with a decent headwind and remained that way until I made the turn to head back into the city limits. After the uptempo I managed to do the uphill 'crawl' back home. Overall I was quite pleased with this mornings run. To hit those types of splits only 48 hours post long run was something I would have had trouble with, and indeed I needed to hold myself back from going into true LT workout zones.

Here are my splits from this mornings run.

21:38 2.7 mile warm up (8:00 pace)

6 mile "steady-state" effort

5:49 pace for 3 out

5:42 pace for 3 back

2 mile warm down

Total:

1:14:32 10.7 miles