Chomping at the bit

Only one week has gone by since that race I'm not supposed to mention anymore and I'm already itching to race again. Considering how bad I felt, both mentally and physically, a week ago, that's hard to imagine. But, I had a good week of recovery and now I just want to RACE.

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Rest

Wednesday - A very stiff, very slow 4 miles.

Thursday - Was supposed to rest, but my new Forerunner came in the mail. So, of course, I had to try it out. Went 3.1 miles and made a point to run on a bunch of streets I've never run on before.

Friday - 5.2 miles. The legs feel MUCH better now that I've started running again.

Saturday - 5.2 miles. It's freaking snowing. Again. On May 10th. Not cool. Think of the worst expletive-laden insult you can come up with. Now, multiply that times 10 and you've got an idea of how I feel toward Mother Nature.

Sunday - 8.25 miles. I was only "supposed" to go 7, but my legs felt great and I was exploring new backroads. I easily fell right back into my normal "long" run pace and then actually cranked out the last couple of miles at BQ pace or faster, just because.

Total - 25.75 miles

I can already see that I'm going to have issues sticking to my recovery plan, but I'll try not to go too overboard. My general plan for now is to build the mileage back up somewhat sensibly, use Deadwood-Mickelson in 4 weeks as a really long training run and then try to get into decent shape to run a solid effort (i.e., faster than last year's 3:32) at Missoula in July.

I'm also going to scratch that racing itch at the DAM 5K this Saturday in Sturgis. I ran this race two years ago. Back then it was held in the evening and it was 90 degrees that day. Add to that the fact that I had just run a marathon (Brookings) the week before and the first half of the 5K is basically all uphill and my performance wasn't all that spectacular. This year, they are having the race in the morning, so the weather should be much more favorable. And I know about that uphill now, so my pacing will be a little smarter. I'm not expecting a PR out of the deal, but I am going for a stronger showing than last time. After all, this will be my last race as a twenty-something year old, so I've gotta go out with a bang.