I suppose, having had such a great run on Friday, I may have gotten a little carried away and paid the price for it this morning! That euphoric feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction and success carried over into Sunday morning, and as I ventured out to my usual trail spot, I actually looked forward to another great run. The "easy pace" session that usually begins with me banging on my Garmin because I swear it's not registering correctly, turned into a shockingly faster pace that felt more comfortable than I'm used to! Conquering hill after hill wasn't so bad, passing other runners was a bonus, and the new songs I downloaded onto my iPod provided a few new beats worth running to. It was all good, except that what I neglected to think through were the tougher workout sessions scheduled from Mon-Wed that might leave me regretting my stupidity of getting caught up in the euphoric moment. I should know better, honestly, I've done this enough times! So, what should have been a 4 mile relaxed run ended up being more of a 5.5 mile tempo run that dumped a little too much lactic acid buildup in the hamstrings/quads......yes, that's what I was feeling this morning....ugh.
Today's plan (after hobbling out of bed) was a 3 miles warm up at "easy pace" leading into 15 x 1 min at threshold pace (with 1 min recovery jog in between each), followed by 3 miles at easy pace. The warm up was both slow and painful, minutes spent tackling knots left behind by the lactic acid buildup and morning stiffness. Then the fun began as I attempted to crank up the speed one minute at a time, sucking wind and feeling the struggle with each one. By the 6th one, my ribs were hurting, side was aching, quads were crying, and my brain was doubting! The added humidity and warm temps AGAIN did nothing for me, it was a good thing Jamie was there to keep us going. There are "easy pace" days for a reason, it's to let the body recover and rejuvenate (harder to do as you age!) I did not to that effectively, very noticeable by sprint number 9. The Garmin was all over the place, registering anywhere from 7:07's to 8:15's and back to 7:20's, not very consistent to say the least! If Jamie had not been there, I'm not sure I would have accomplished all 15 sprints, it was an ugly run. Finally, the last one followed by a VERY slow 3 mile cool down. Completed. Sucked. Yuck. Awful. Done. Finally.
I had looked forward to running on a flat course today (first time in 3 wks!), but I'm almost certain that my legs found the flat terrain more difficult than the hills. Every moment felt hard, I really wanted to quit. But, I'm type A and I keep a running calendar and I can't cross off today's workout plan if I didn't complete it, so there you have it. Finishing this workout was agonizing, but after completing it, I felt accomplished, satisfied. It's through these struggles that I'll become more efficient, mentally stronger, a better runner and I'll gain a confidence to carry me through even tougher workouts. It's important to push beyond what you think you're capable of doing, to test the boundaries and to see what lies on the other side, and to learn where your inner strength comes from. After struggling through this workout, I emailed my coach and asked him if he had made a mistake in the number of sprints I was to perform, maybe he had it wrong. I explained how hard it was and how I wasn't sure if I could get through all 40 miles that are on my plan for this week. BUT, now that I've had some time to reflect, I know that this is good for me. I shy away from tough workouts, I despise them, but they are necessary if I want to achieve my goals.
Today's mantra:
Shut up and Run (because I need to hear that and because my parents NEVER let me say the words "shut up" when I was growing up, so now I want this on my t-shirt)
Tomorrow, Meredith will NOT have any empathy for my tired body/muscles and she will push me to finish an entire hour of weight lifting, so I'd better relax now while I can.
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