Hamstring soreness

Mom and Dad needed me to check something in their house so instead of driving there, I ran the 5 km up (literally uphill) and back home (down hill).  10 km in 57 min.  My hamstrings were tight and sore the whole time.

Blah.

Woke up today with fever, aches and pains.  Maybe that was why my hamstrings were so sore?

5 km drag

I thought I would try to run my Yonge Street route as fast as I could and take Baci for a good quality run at the same time.

We started out strong, running on average 4:40 then he got tired!  I dragged him for most of the run.  I felt like the strong woman in a truck pulling competition.  Here I was trying to run fast dragging 80 ish pounds of tired, panting, dog.





We finished our 5 km run in 30 min but to tell the truth, I don't think that is correct.  We were running fast (at least at the beginning).  There have been times when my BRF and I have set our GPS gadgets and have come up with different stats.  I am still trying to figure that out.

Either way, we went for a good run this morning.

Long run scheduled for tomorrow (17 km??)

Thinking of Michael Phelps

That was a hard 8 km run this morning.  I ran with Baci around Cedervale.  Started with listening to a Podcast but realize pretty early on that I needed music.  My legs felt slow and heavy today.  Baci stopping constantly to sniff or pee did not help matters.

At about 2 km I felt that I needed to pee. I was slightly envious that Baci could pee everywhere and anywhere as I felt the pressure building in my bladder.  Now my legs felt heavy as did my torso.

I started to envision ducking into the thick brush to relieve myself but then worried about school children (outside playing) seeing me.  I was running so slowly, way slower than my 5'40.  I was averaging 6'54.  Crazy!!

I remember Michael Phelps sometimes trained in the pitch dark in case he was to lose a contact in competition.  I saw this as a test of my strength of endurance and tried to make it a good learning experience.

I made a mind shift around 5 km to just relax and enjoy being outside and forget my pace, the time, or my discomfort. 

The sky was so blue, leaves so green.  I love this time of year.  I also saw a large yellow butterfly in the park.

Near home the port-a-potties started taunting me:

I would not stop!!!  Too close to home!!!

Got home finally and had my well deserved pee!

Why I love speed work

Speed work is hard but it's one of those things where you can see instant results.  I recently heard on The Mother Runner podcast  (http://anothermotherrunner.com/category/amr-radio-show/  btw, you can download for free via itunes) a great idea: that you can't expect to run faster if you don't train faster.  It's like wanting to lose the last 10 lbs without doing anything different to your diet.  Nothing's going to change if you don't do the work.

There have been times when I've gone for a run and I felt like I was running really fast but then I checked my watch at the end and my average speed was the same as always.  I hate that.  I go on emotional instant roller coaster of being really happy to really disappointed/confused.

Speed work changes all that in only half an hour once a week.

My comfort pace is around 5.40/km.  Today my BRF (best running friend) and I ran laps around the local park.  Our comfort pace was around 5.40 and the speed laps were between 4.10 and 4.20.  Fast enough that we couldn't talk but not so fast that we wanted to throw up (almost but not quite).  We ran home at 5.40 and it felt so slow!

Btw... I did not take Baci this time and I DID make it all around the track without stopping (see May 14th post). So... either I am faster and stronger than I was a few weeks ago OR Baci made it too difficult to concentrate on the task at hand!

If it's true that muscle has memory please let it remember today!