Last week was another decent week of training. I managed a 5 mile tempo run at 6:47 pace on Monday, 12 miles on Wednesday with 8 of them being on hilly trails, and then Friday I ran 17 miles at Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth on Friday. The 17 miler was great. It was 55 degrees and sunny. I paid $5 to park my car, grabbed a map and hit the trails. It was probably 90 minutes before I saw anyone else on the trails. That’s my kind of run.
Given that I ran 16 miles the previous Saturday, that means I was up to 73 miles for the 7-day time period. I ended up taking Saturday off, which “officially” gave me 57 miles for the week.
Sunday I started doing yard work and before I knew it I never got a run in. Not a huge deal given my last 3 weeks of training. With two days off in a row, I was ready to throw in another tempo run on Monday. However, it was a struggle just to run a super slow 5 miles. That was the worst run I can remember in a long time. As I said on Facebook, it was the kind of run that makes me realize why others may hate running.
Tuesday was a little better, but not much. Part of the problem was that my hamstrings were just incredibly sore. Not sure if it was from raking or bending over to pull weeds. Lately, Wednesdays have evolved into 10-12 mile trail runs, typically with a couple of my college teammates. Usually, I’m falling off the back every time we go up any sort of incline. I had been getting stronger recently and keeping up a little better, but today was another huge struggle.
So with 3 sub-par runs this week, I find myself considering not even signing up for this Saturday’s 10K, even though it’s in the MDRA Grand Prix, the USATF Team Series, and the fact that I’d like to be able to compare myself to my last 8K. Online registration closes tomorrow evening. Perhaps tomorrow’s recovery run will be the determining factor as to whether I sign up or not.
Quote of the Day;
"When I’m done, I’ll know I’m done. I’ll walk off the track – you won’t have to push me off.” – Abdi Abdirahman
I remember getting sore in the past from doing yard work. You certainly use different muscles compared to running.
ReplyDelete