Race recovery week

M : 4.7 / 40:28 / 8:36

T : 5.09 / 42:06 / 8:16

W : 3.75 / 33:08 / 8:50

R : 4.77 / 39:44 / 8:19

F : 4.7 / 36:49 / 7:50

S :  5.56 / 39:30 / 7:06

Monday thru Friday this week, I got up at 4:50 am to run before school.  The main reason for this, is that I have had insomnia and have been waking up anywhere between 3 and 5 anyway.  I have found that if I can make myself get out of bed super early, I eventually get tired enough that my brain decides to start letting me sleep at night again.  I used to run first thing in the morning every day, but it was never as easy to get out of bed as it was this week.  (Except for Wednesday.  Wednesday was terrible.  All day.)

My main problem with running early in the morning, aside from the getting out of bed part, is that I run so. much. slower. Partly because I'm trying to see where I'm going.  Partly because there's no music to energize me.  Partly because I'm stiff from lying in bed all night.  Even when I feel like I'm running fast in the dark, I often get home and find out I was closer to an 8 minute pace than a 7 minute pace.

This week I didn't even try to run fast.  I was pretty stiff from the race on Saturday that I was not in shape for.  Monday and Tuesday I mainly just wanted to jog and try to loosen up some of the stiff muscles.  Unfortunately, it was below freezing out, so it was kind of hard to actually get warm enough for my muscles to get loose.  Oh well.

On Friday, I did try a little harder, mainly because I was tired of seeing the 8+ min/mile paces.  I found it very exciting that I got under 8 that day.

On Saturday, I got to run in daylight. With music.  I may have been flying, not running.  It felt fabulous after the dark, silent runs.  I don't get training runs that close to 7 minute pace too often.

Since I didn't train too hard this week, I contemplated running today even though it would have been 7 days in a row and I don't do that too often.  I would have run, if it wasn't 10 degrees out.  And if I didn't have a muscle cramp in the muscle running up from the middle of my calf into the back of my knee.  I figured those were two good reasons not to run today.  I have no idea what I did to that muscle but I hope it decides to relax soon.  It's been bothering me all day and refuses to respond to stretching.