Tuesday, March 25th, 2014

10 miles @ 6:35 pace.
So, after this week of feeling like my stride and everything that governs it had become as tight and limping and weak as it has ever been, I decided this whole idea of waiting to get back on the horse is bullshit and dammit, I'm going to chase the horse down. The last straw was that my only chance for a mile repeat workout that would leave me in any sort of shape for the 5k would be Wednesday, which, of course will be snowed out.
Yesterday, I knew that today would not be the day to do it because my legs just couldn't handle that sort of pounding. But still, I was just pissed. Pissed at this winter, pissed at this training, pissed at the half I ran, pissed at the fact that I am running like crap right now because I'm tired as hell.
So, with all that in mind, I set out for what I figured would be an easy 8-10 miles. I felt pretty good going out, but still tight and a bit sore, so I just ran a 7:45 warmup and a 7:05 second mile. But somewhere in that second mile, the music I was listening to (Queens of the Stone Age for starters, Live from the BBC, "My God is the Sun" specifically,) kicked me in the ass and for the first time in over a week, I opened up my stride and man did it feel good. 6:42 for the next and then it was right down into the sub-6:20 range for the next few with a 5:55 7th and a couple good ones to close before settling back down for a 6:39 10th to cool down. Certainly not a real tempo and not a workout by any means, but just allowing myself the feeling of running strong and fast. It left me a little beat up in the legs and I know I'm still too fatigued to be thinking this is doing me a hell of a lot of good, but just mentally, I couldn't do another 7:15-ish, short-strided slog around the same roads.
It felt good.