Well, technically it's official now. Equinoxically speaking, it really is spring. I stepped outside after work today and every bit of worry and anxiety in the world just melted away the moment that soft, warm air hit my face. I know we were cruelly teased and misled by these mild breezes barely more than a week ago before being blindsided by six inches of snow...but I just can't bear any more cold mornings. This has to be it. It's funny too, because I think I'm really more of a winter person than a hot weather fan, but I guess I'm just tired of being cold.
It was still a little chilly this morning, but almost all the snow has melted and I was able to finally get back on to the soft dirt of the bridle path. Muddy, to be sure, but oh so much easier on my legs. Five days of running on the pavement has left me feeling pretty beat up and I can read the story right off the face of my heart monitor. I only did six miles today at 9:30 pace (more than a minute slower than my usual easy training pace) and recorded the highest average heart rate I've had all week!
I'm actually quite surprised that I'm feeling so fatigued from this current routine of steady, but slow miles, but I guess it's the byproduct of a lot of little things that by themselves wouldn't throw me. 1. I haven't had a day off from running in two weeks. 2. 5 days in a row running on pavement 3. Starting to feel the effects of higher (50+) mileage 4. I might be fighting off some kind of germ, I've been waking up with a mild sore throat 5. Slower paced running puts different kinds of stresses on the muscles than they're used to 6. Stress/anxiety from work and other stuff 7. Slight dehydration, who ever drinks enough? 8. a Small calorie deficiency due to diet
Who knows, really. I'll just keep tabs on it and hope I feel better soon.
Oh, something really stupid I just did this past weekend...I've been running on the same pair of shoes since after the marathon so I was up to more than 400 miles on those and was really feeling the loss of cushioning and badly needed to get a new pair. So I went to the local running shop where they didn't have either of the Asics I wanted in my size. I tried on a couple pairs of New Balance and finally settled on the 1222s which I thought I'd run in before. I bought those along with a cool top that was on sale and didn't even look at the credit card receipt when I signed it. That was the stupid bit. Turns out those damn shoes were $145! I never, ever, ever pay that much for running shoes. I just go through them too quickly when I'm running 200+ miles a month. Ugh. I guess these are their super-duper cushioning, stability model and I don't even need all that. Live and learn -- I won't make that mistake again.