Perfect Evening
Two great runs today.
At lunch ran Wayside Inn Road (7.8) in 50:18 at about 6:25 pace with the last mile in 6:15, with senior Lutz. We finished with three sets of abdominals afterwards in the fitness center.
Tonight I ran a little Magnolia rd shake-out to Bob Hodge's house. We talked track for about 30 minutes. Always a good person to talk to and bounce ideas off of for your race prep and strategy (strategery if you are the president of the United States). Tomorrow he is heading down to the Millrose games in NYC. There is going to be a sick Wannamaker mile with Bekele and Lagat going to head. It is going to be on ESPN 2 during the Super bowl so someone is going to be mad at me when I change the channel to catch the mile. The run was probably just under five in about 31:30. The weather was just perfect for a February night run. 35 F, partly cloudy, no wind to speak of. Just heaven on a run. (ha ha. kind of like heaven on a bun but not as fattening. ok, not funny, will go away now)
All the knee problems I referred to yesterday are gone. Ice, stretching, and care can do wonders if you catch it early enough. For future reference, I have three levels of difficulty:
1. Hurtin’ = Just worn down, tired, and fatigued. Could stem from a hard workout or race, a particularly hard week at work, too much fun the night before a run or just overtraining.
2. Hurt = Sore spot or hot spot somewhere. For example a tight knee, lower back pain, sore Achilles, tight plantar fascia, those sorts of things. Typically go away but could turn into No. 3 if not properly cared for.
3. Injured = can not run. Something is torn, sprained, or otherwise incapacitated. You know running on it is doing more damage than good so humility is the better part of valor and you have to take a zero. I hate taking zeros more than anything in life. If it is a day off, that is a day off. A zero is a day I planned to run on the schedule and did not and those are unacceptable.
There you have my three layers of discomfort. I am typically a pretty healthy runner. I have been gifted with a neutral stride that goes in a straight line from nose to toes. When something does happen to make things go a little off kilter, I give it undivided attention to fix it pronto. One of my teammates in college once said “Running injury free is a conscious effort.” I took those words to heart and have not been injured bad since high school.
Hard workout tomorrow so I am going to fix up some dinner and get some sleep.