niner

yesterday was another great day for a run. the cold that had the city in a deep freeze for a few days had dissipated and it was a balmy 40ish degrees when i got to the park.

i was running a little late, so i hadn't eaten breakfast (bad). but i did have the presence of mind to grab an extra goo to slug down before we started running (good). my quad was feeling okay. i hesitate even to call it a "pain" - its more of a dull ache the waves hello, saying "hi! i'm here! don't forget about me!" while i go about my usual business.

i talked to coach luis about it on the way to the warm-up spot. it could be a muscle that just isn't getting stretched, or possibly the i.t. band is tight and it's pulling at the quad. he suggested the usual icing stretching combo, maybe getting a roller, and said to see how it felt during the run. if it got better as i went, that would be a good sign.

we had our usual warm up of squats and lunges, etc. and then most of the team was headed off to do the effort level work out. since i had already done this on the treadmill tuesday, i told the coaches i was going to go straight away into my distance run. for nine miles, i could do two loops (6.8), then a bit of a down and back for the extra 2+ miles.

all in all the run was good. i had a lot of motivation - i had gotten a really sweet email from anthony, the other person i run for, which i will tell you about in a different post. suffice it to say that it brought a tear to my eye. and happily my quad did loosen up, even if the "ache" was still there a bit. i took it nice and easy on the downhills (where you can actually do far more damage to your legs) and tried to pay attention to if it was getting worse. i will not be skipping breakfast any more, i will say that. the goo i had around mile 5 was good, but i definitely felt like i was fading a bit at the end of the run. and i might have to suck it up and get a fuel belt...right now i've been stopping for drinks of water after each loop, which is managable at shorter distances. technically though, we're supposed to be drinking every 20 minutes, which at my current speed isn't quite 2 miles.

when i finished i was happy to find that it was quarter to 11. we started right around 9, and then with my two water breaks, i figure i did the run in about 100 minutes or so, which puts me right around an 11 minute mile. not so bad considering i've just been getting into the swing of things.

maybe my time goal is not quite as impossible as it seems some days ;)

of course today i woke up and in addition to the sore left quad, my right knee is a little achy. but it feels like a typical i-ran-a-long-distance-pain that i remember from my first season when i really was a novice.

saturday's mileage: 9.3
rough pace: 11 minute mile
season mileage to date: 55.2