Thank goodness that week is done. I started the week with a strength workout on Tuesday. This is the first strength workout I'd done in well over a month. Why did I decide to do it hours before a tempo run? I'm not sure. But, I just remembered why strength training always falls off for me when I'm running often.
My tempo run Tuesday night was done on the treadmill, and I often thought "Ugh, is it over yet?" and it was NOT. I stuck with it and did 20 minutes at my tempo pace on the treadmill after a 5 minute warm up. Normally I take a 5 minute cool down run after, but this time I did not. I just walked once it was done. Tough run, but done.
Wednesday was another tempo run, and I went to the Running Room to run it. Our pace leader wasn't there, so it was up to us to keep our pace. That's fine. There were two of us with GPSs, and I was already tired and told them I'd try to keep a 5:54 pace, but I wasn't sure I could. I find it hard to look at the garmin while running, especially in the dark and with so many layers on. What I usually do is look at it when it beeps to give my kilometer splits. That's what I did this time, and yelled it ahead to the others, that is until they were too far ahead of me and couldn't hear me.... First split was 5:25, then 5:37... At this point, the others were too far ahead and couldn't hear me anyway. I decided to stop trying to keep up. I knew it was too fast from the start, but was feeling a little competitive and wanted to keep up. There were still a few of us at the back of the pack. Actually, I was in the middle. The other girl with a garmin was behind, likely keeping the right pace for us. The next 2 kilometer splits were more "on" target with 5:53 and 6:02. That last kilometer was tough. Very tough. That is what happens when you go out too fast. The other girls are just faster than me. They didn't slow down, I don't think, and they seemed fine. I was happy with the run, though. It was nice to push it. I ran back to my office after that, so about 5k in total.
But, then Thursday, I was still suffering from sore legs. I ran 3k with the group at about a 6:30 pace. It was nice and easy. I even made it all the way up Salter without any walk breaks. Saturday's run was 5k with an average pace of 6:25, but with a fast finish. My legs were tired starting, but I was fine once I warmed up.
Today... Well, that was a different beast. It sucked. I have no other way to explain it. I thought we were running about 6:25 pace. It turned out to be a 7:02 pace. There was snow down from last night, and it was windy. And I was running on really tired quads. That's the only reasons I have to explain my lack of lungs and lack of energy. That was a tough 9k for me. But, it's done. I don't seem to be any worse for wear, other than needing a nap this afternoon.
Week #4 - 5 runs, total of 27km.
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