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May 12, 2008
Another Win, 76 Miles, and Screaming Quads . . . Taking It Down a Notch
Another week, another win, and a brick wall . . . I'm taking a giant leap backwards this week.
I recovered well after the half - better than expected- and I was even excited to hear that people thought the course was actually 13.22 miles (which would have put me in at 1:19:54). BUT, I am not one to get excited about "what ifs" or to get my hopes up over rumors regarding long courses. In my mind, I was just relieved to hear people chirping that the course was long as opposed to charging that it was short! That race and the time still haven't hit home with me . . . I am finally reaching goals that I have had since I first started turning circles over 20 years ago, but it's hard to believe what has magically come together over the past 18 months.
So last week I hit another 76 mile week - I had a couple of solid workouts, and I capped off the week with a win at the Lemont Quarryman Challenge 10 mile run (I finished in 1:03 exactly and managed to break the course record by 5 minutes; the first mile climbed 100 feet . . . it was BRUTAL . . . the entire course was a roller-coaster), and a Sunday 20 mile run into winds gusting up to 35 mph and rain the size of golf balls. The race on Saturday was not planned - H. decided to have all of us do it as a solid hill workout. I averaged 6:18s over a super hilly course and while I did not feel like I was working particularly hard, I definitely felt the burn in my quads. My legs were still coming out of the previous week's half (whether I felt it or not). It's not surprising that everything came crashing down during Sunday's 20 miler. I was so miserable that I wanted to cry and then walk (in that order), but I kept coaching myself into believing that these kinds of tough runs are what separate the Paula Radcliffes from the rest of us.
I returned home from Sunday's run and spent the rest of the day with the chills, a fever, and a lot of bathroom breaks. B's parents were in town so we went out to eat the night before at a fun Mexican restaurant and something that I ate completely disagreed with me. After my run on Sunday, I mustered up the energy to celebrate Mother's Day with B's mom - she is sooooooo awesome, beautiful, and warm! We had a great time together as a family even though I felt awful the entire time; it was just a rough day.
I took Monday off and got a deep tissue massage. The massage is definitely helping, but I feel more run down now than I can ever remember feeling. I don't have any red flag symptoms of over-training - other than sore quads and fatigue, but I always experience some level of that at this stage in training. My hunch is that the massage - and I haven't had one since October 9, 2007 - released a bunch of toxins and crap that are swimming throughout my body as I write this. I feel kind of flu-like and exhausted.
BUT, all of that said, I am incredibly optimistic. This is all to be expected, especially considering that I have sewn together weeks of 65-77-73-70-58 (race) - 76. I have no idea what kind of mileage I will log this week, but I am not worried about it. My primary goal is to get my legs back so that I can focus on sneaking under 2:50 in a few weeks.
B. took some neat pictures of the race on Saturday - I will try to post a few :)
Posted by bridget at May 12, 2008 6:45 PM
Comments
Congratulations on another win! I don't know how you finished that 20 miler on Sunday. The weather was so brutal; when I saw that it was raining sideways and the trees were flipping over from the wind, I decided to hit the treadmill - as you allude to, that may be one of the many differences between a "runner" and an "athlete"!
Posted by: colleen at May 14, 2008 11:45 AM
Wow - very nice job! I am very impressed! Your training is coming together superbly.
Posted by: mindi at May 18, 2008 7:33 PM