Week of January 13, 2013:
Monday: ??? Either yoga or off—I don’t remember!
Tuesday: Evening run (27 minutes, including two 1-minute surges)
Wednesday: Bike ride commute to work and grocery-shopping
Thursday: Bike ride commute to work and Ben Knox wine night!
Friday: Evening run (24 minutes)
Saturday: Short bike ride for groceries + slow afternoon walk
Minutes run this week: 121
Week of January 20, 2013:
Sunday: Long run! (80 long, slow minutes)
Today’s run was hard. The weather was quite nice, although I was overdressed for it. I wore pants and a sweatshirt, but I should have worn a running skirt! That’s not really what made things hard. My legs felt tired from the start, and though I felt better after a warm-up mile or two, I never really felt great.
So it goes in the life of a runner. I thought about cutting today’s long run short but decided against it because I had no other compelling reason. My feeling is that mild fatigue is a pretty lame reason to ditch a long run; long runs are supposed to teach your body how to run through fatigue. If I felt like I was overtraining or flirting with injury or just completely exhausted, I might cut a run short. Today I had none of those things, so I persevered, and I told myself, “You’re building endurance, you’re building endurance!” Truly, that is what we do when we continue to run on tired legs: you teach your body to go just a little bit further, to manage just a little more discomfort in your muscles. You stretch your current fitness limits just a little more.
That being said, I was super happy to be finished and have since enjoyed a nice lunch, a hot shower, and right now I’ve got some homemade cookies and oranges with yogurt waiting for me. On that note, I shall wish you a happy Sunday and a wonderful week.
PS I don’t really live in wine country, but don’t those photos above seem like something out of California? It has been such a beautiful weekend here.
Those ARE beautiful photos! I like the purple scheme you've got going on. :) And I agree about running during fatigue - I always tell myself, "This is where the training begins!"
ReplyDeleteFatigue: it's where the sneaker meets the road!
DeleteThe photos are truly beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI was happy to be finished with my 5 miler today too. My legs weren't fatigued but I was still feeling full from a homemade brunch and probably should have postponed my run for another hour or so ... or better yet set an alarm and run earlier.
Oof, the post-meal run. Yeah, that's rough. I mean, you don't want to complain too much because you just had this awesome meal, but running on a too-full stomach is not good. At least you got it done!
ReplyDeleteMy food weakness is smoothies before I run :-) They're so tasty that it's hard for me to drink only half and save the rest for the post-run refueling.