I guess you could call this week diverse. I delved into trail running and ran a 5K. The trail run was fun, the 5K less so (but 5Ks are never fun while you are doing them....if they are, you aren't doing it fast enough).
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 7 miles. I tried to speed up to tempo pace for a mile or two, but quickly came to the conclusion that my legs aren't quite ready for that. I managed something slightly slower than marathon pace for one mile and then took it easy.
Wednesday - 5 miles. First run in my brand spankin new, very red pair of Nike Lunar Trainers. Still not sure if they will become my go-to race shoe, but I am amazed by how cushioned AND light they are. Also, I spent all day at work on a prescribed burn, which involved a bunch of hiking over fairly rugged terrain (or at least as rugged as it gets in the Black Hills).
Thursday - Rest. Definitely feeling the burn (literally) from yesterday.
Friday - 11.4 miles. Felt good. Longest run since Boston, but not for long.
Saturday - 14.3 miles. As detailed in my last post, I did this on the Big Hill Trails. It's definitely going to be an adjustment for me to measure my long runs by time and not necessarily distance. This run took me 2.5 hours. Normally, I could cover at least 18 miles in that amount of time, but trail running is very different. I've gotta keep reminding myself that it's more about time on my feet than distance covered.
Sunday - 3.1 miles. Shannon and I ran the Run for Their Lives 5K in Spearfish. Since it was Mother's Day, I got stroller-pushing duty. I think I've only run one other race while pushing the kids in the stroller and that was a couple of years ago, so they've gained weight since then. I finished that race in 24:XX, so my goal here was to break my stroller PR. Mission accomplished. My legs actually felt really good after the trail run (apparently soft dirt and grass is more forgiving than asphalt and concrete). I took off at a pace that felt hard but wouldn't lead to me puking alongside the road while my kids watched. I (we, actually) ended up finishing in 22:10, good enough for 9th place overall (out of 70-some total runners). The kids had a blast. Halfway through I tried to talk em into letting me ride while they pushed, but they didn't fall for it. Kids these days...
Total - 40.8 miles
I was hoping for more miles, but the 5K and my misjudgement of trail pace resulted in slightly fewer than I had planned on. I'm hoping to get the mileage up some more in the coming weeks because I definitely think my legs are ready for it. The endurance is coming back pretty well. I definitely still have a ways to go before I get back my pre-Boston speed, but hopefully I'll get there before the Deadwood-Mickelson Half-marathon on June 7th. This is the point in marathon recovery where I generally start to get impatient. The soreness and aches and pains from the marathon are all gone, but my body still won't move as fast as I think it should. Patience is not a virtue of mine....
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