April 8, 2010
Run: Slow 8M (8.47 mi @ 07:42)
Ah, back to normal life. Partly good, partly sucks. Its always hard to leave a vacation mindset. Has me saying crazy things like…we should move there or visit for a month next time. I have flexibility to work from anywhere so I start getting antsy. Then we get back home and I realize why this is the best place to live. Back to work.
Went around the reservoir just to get back into altitude. Always seems like a challenge breathing when I return after being gone for more than a week. Felt totally crappy for the first 1/2. HR and pace were OK but I was breathing like I lost a lung. Took a deuce in a field. That helped. Stopped to pee like 10 times too. I was a total purge-a-thon. Then finally loosened up a bit after hacking up a lung. Was supposed to do intervals but not ready after long day of travel yesterday. Hopefully, I can ramp up here for a few days and burn some good calories and then coast it in.
Weight is up after the vacation but it varies so much through the day. I was far from inactive on the trip given I usually spend 8 hours a day in a chair. I didn’t overeat — usually just 2 meals. But I was up 12 pounds from my lowest of the cycle when we got home last night around midnight. That isn’t a fair comparison since the low was taken in the AM after a run before re-hydrating. Today I reclaimed 7 of those pounds back. A couple more runs and craps and I should be back to fighting weight. Hopefully, it gave the muscles the fuel they need to rebuild.
I definitely feel a bit of tightness. Does not hurt but just tight. Hope its everything sort of repairing and tightening back up for the final exam in just over a week.
Need to start figuring out final pacing strategies. GZ sent me some info. Trying to figure out if I should just bust out some fast miles to start while the downhill is on to get ahead of the clock? Folks seem to consistently mention quads being burnt up by Heartbreak Hill because of the downhill. Around here, we tend to run steep and short downhill. I used to not be able to without consequences. Now, it never hurts. Hoping that it translates to a longer slower downhill but I just don’t know. Maybe I should have tested it out more.
Some days I get anxious about this race. Some days I fixate on breaking 3 hours. Some days I just want to finish. Never knowing exactly what I am capable of race day. All I know is that I have trained longer and harder for this than any other race and I stand on the shoulders of those previous cycles as building blocks for this one. That can only mean one thing — I should be faster. Once again the question is “by how much”? Getting tired of that one.
I went 8.47 miles with an elevation gain of 119 feet in 01:05:13, which is an average pace of 07:42. Heart rate average was 134. View my GPS data on Garmin Connect.
