Sluggish, but complete!

The title says it all. Today, my legs were had that traditional dead feeling about them. In latin, it's called Elegusbetiredus. And that they were. Mostly from the above threshold workout from yesterday. Those 16x400m were a killer. And I knew they would be too. So I fully expected todays run, whihc was scheulded as the same as Mondays, to be slower. And that it was. And thank goodness for running partners. Otherwise I wouldn't have been there. Having that guilt hang over your head that you were at home sleeping while your training partner is out there getting stronger is not a good feeling. I'll get that one on him tomorrow, since he has to go into work early and can't make the group session. I'll be grindin out those 800m repeats! All eight of them. Seems crazy that we put our bodies through this motion. But there one thing I can honestly say is, I've never met a runner who hasn't been goal oriented. We're a strange breed. And now that my Coffee Shop nightmare is over, I suddenly have all this extra time that I can dedicate to the sport that I love, and stay trim and fit along the way! That's the greatest part. Getting out there and exercising an hour a day, it means you care about yoursself. That's probably the main reason that you can find yourself blend into a running group so well. It's like minded people that have similar goals and care about themselves.

That was actually one of the many topics we covered in our run today. Surprisingly, we weren't a whole lot slower then Monday. About 15 seconds per mile difference which equated to a little 2 mins overall. Not too shabby considering my legs didn't have the getup and go they had on Monday! And not too bad considering we beat our time from two weeks ago. I can always find the silver lining and make it into a positive. I guess that's my gift. I'm a glass half full kinda guy. There's always an oppertunity in somthing.

And with that, I'll end this post. It's time for a little post run relaxer of Green Tea and some breakfast. Throw in a side dish of my compex on my back, and my morning is SET. If only I could take a little nap.... HA! I wish!

Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

The weather cool off, but the Training RAMPS UP!

The training regimen too another giant ramp up this week. I like to follow the philosophy where you work hard for two weeks, take an easier week to allow for a little recovery, and the start the cycle over. With that, last week was my easier week, so this week, I have to come out of the gate and start getting the miles in. This past Saturday, I scheduled my own workout of a 30 minute tempo so that I could keep the miles low, but still get a feel of where I am. Two weeks before that I ran the same workout with the group of non-racers, and I got in 3.85 miles. Saturday was used as a measuring stick to make sure I'm still making progress. That was difficult, because only 2 of us weren't racing, so my normal group wasn't there to keep pace with. That's the beauty of training with a group. You have someone out there to keep you mentally focused. I have a problem where my mind wanders when I get out there by myself. BUT, as luck would have it, my first two miles were incredibly steady at a pace of 7:34 and 7:37! Talk about consistent. I have no idea what my 3rd mile was because I didn't capture it when the alarm went off, but I'm pretty sure this is where mentally I checked out. I'm thinking it was around the 7:50 or 7:55 range. It's this are where I really need to "focus". Having said that, I did make it almost a full 10th of a mile further then two weeks ago. That's a HUGE mental victory. My first goal is making it to the 4 mile mark. I should have that the next time I run it. Not sure exactly when that will be, as I'm considering running the 10 miler coming up since it's going to be run on a Saturday instead of the usual race Sunday.

I ended up taking Sunday off as a rest day so that I could keep my mileage down, and the fact that I had to head up to Phoenix for the Cardinals game early. This week, I cannot afford to skip. I have to get up and out of bed, and GIT 'ER DONE!! NO EXCUSES. So far, I'm right no track mileage wise. Yesterday was a GREAT run with Paul. We did the 5.7 miles (Paul did 10), and we managed to cut 2 full minutes off our time from two weeks ago. Talking the whole time. that is another marker of your fitness. As the pace of your easy days picks up, that just means your fast days are going to get even faster. That's a great thing. Eventually, instead of going by mileage I'm going to have to start managing by time. Right now, that only took 49 minutes. I'm going to have to increase that to a full hour. But that's for another day.

Today was what I like to call a "Ball Buster"! 16 x 1/4 mile, NO REST, Target times of 1:45 on the out, and 1:55 on the return. This was the first time we've EVER run that workout. And it was everything I thought it was be. But you have to GRIND IT OUT! And, as expected, I only hit my target time twice. Obviously, I'm not happy with that. But I really had no idea what I would to it in. The hardest part of the workout was actually the turn around. You easily lose 2-4 seconds, and it really takes you out of your stride. So, even though I'm unhappy that I didn't make my times, I'm happy that I ground them out. In looking ahead in the schedule, it doesn't look like we're doing that one anytime on this schedule. So it will probably be a while before I get to see progress n that one. No biggie.

And with that, for the remainder of the week, I've got another 5.7 miles tomorrow with Paul, 8x800 on Thursday, and the 2 fer 5K on Saturday. So far, so good, and it looks like I've got a LOT of quality time scheduled with my Compex and Active Recovery massages! LIVESTRONG, train hard, and keep reaching for new heights!