Recovery Week

I took three whole days off after the Charleston Distance Run.  I am notoriously bad at taking days off (the more I need a day off, the less likely I am to take it...don't ask why).  It seems that I am learning to be smarter, and to be kinder to my poor legs.

I contemplated taking a week off, but there was no way I could really talk myself into that.  Three days was the most I could handle.  And then I decided that when I resumed running, I would switch to an AM running schedule.  Amazingly, I had been getting to bed pretty early, and so I decided that maybe it wouldn't be so hard to get up at 4:50 (ha).

I actually didn't have any trouble getting out of bed Wednesday morning when the alarm went off.  But it about 43 degrees out and I dressed for summer running.  That was a cold run.  Also, it was so foggy, I could hardly see where I was going most of the time.  I'm surprised I made it through the whole run without running off the road at any point.  And then after I got home and finished stretching, my knees started aching in that way that they only ache after a cold run.  Ugh.  It's only September, I don't want to deal with this.

I didn't have any trouble getting up on Thursday either, and this time I put on a long sleeve shirt for the run so I wouldn't be quite so cold.  It was a tiny bit less foggy too.  Friday I really did not want to get out of bed, but managed to drag myself out anyway.  It was a whole 10 degrees warmer out, which was awesome, and it wasn't too foggy to hide the rising sun so it was even a little bit light out by the time I finished my run.  I love being able to see where I'm going when I run...

I was going to run a 5k race on Saturday, but when it came down to it, my gas tank was almost empty and I didn't feel like filling it, or spending 45+ min in the car each way just to run a race that I've heard has a terribly marked course that everyone gets lost on.  Not worth wasting my Saturday morning.  Plus, Josh was running 10 miles, and the only way I was going to get in a long run was if I ran with someone, so I decided to take advantage of that.

I keep saying that I need to start strength training, but workout is really boring, so I haven't really managed to do it yet.  I did workout for 5-10 minutes on Monday though.  I broke a sweat and got out of breath so I'm gonna say it counts.  Also, I've started doing 10 burpees before each run, and 10 walking lunges after each run.  The burpees help a lot with the morning runs, because they are always slow, and getting my heart rate up before I go out the door helps me at least start the run faster than a 9 min/mile pace.  The lunges afterwards are just because I feel like I should be doing lunges.

This week:

M: rest/mini workout

T: off

W: 5.56 / 44:34 / 8:00

R: 4.68 / 40:51 / 8:43

F: 5.57 / 45:17 / 8:06

Sa : 10.1 / 1:19:27 / 7:51 w/Josh

Su : off

week total : 25.91

In other news, here's a picture of me from the CDR that a friend came across.  

I don't know why I always look like I'm dying in photos of running.  

This was in the beginning of the race, long before I actually felt like dying.