do you deserve credit?

the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

-theodore roosevelt

[i thought i'd dedicate my *100th post* to another morsel of motivation]

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"speed"work

i use that term quite loosely today.

my legs are still tired from sunday's 18 and did not want to move. after only a few hours of sleep i got up early to log my miles and then vote. (i don't want to die)

in the past i've done my mile repeats at the track, aiming for a 6:55 pace (successfully i guess as that is about the average of all the repeats i've done, some faster, some slower). today i ran them in a nearby neighborhood that has a 1-mile figure-8 loop running through it, with hills of course. the inclines definitely slowed me down and my legs being sore/tired slowed me down, but factoring that in i'm not too terribly disappointed about today. i could feel myself running hard and i could feel the fatigue in my legs. i decided to cut the repeats short (4 instead of 6) and try to give my legs a little more time to take it easy.

warmup (1mi) - 9:56, 142
1xmile - 7:49, 168
2xmile - 7:28, 171
3xmile - 7:28, 175
4xmile - 7:20, 178

rest of the run (3mi)
mile 6 - 8:59, 171
mile 7 - 9:02, 171
mile 8 - 8:35, 170

the last 3 miles seemed so hard for my legs and i thought i was going way slow (glad to see i wasn't). i'm hoping my legs will continue to loosen up and repair themselves in time for the big 20 on sunday (starting to get psyched out already).

am run: 8 miles, 1:07:40 (8:27 avg pace), avg/max hr (163/193)

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running in the dark - just can't avoid it

blah blah blah daylight savings is so great. sure it gives me an extra hour of sleep technically, but now it also ensures that i run in the dark whether it's before or after work. boo winter.

i got in my 5 recovery/shake out run today after work, the sun set in the first mile leaving me for 4 dark miles. i am definitely feeling yesterday's 18-miler. i guess it's not as bad as it could be because i really don't feel that bad, but i am a little sore in some random places and i could feel the lactate in my leg muscles as i ran. my legs were slightly stiff this morning when i woke up but they loosened up as i was getting ready for work. my neck muscles have been sore all day, probably from bad running form yesterday? i noticed it mostly when i went to try to scratch an itch and even the light contact hurt. weird.

mile 1 - 9:26, 133
mile 2 - 10:07, 144
mile 3 - 9:44, 144
mile 4 - 10:04, 148
mile 5 - 9:32, 150

yeah my splits are slow and of course i wish they could've been more around the 9:00 range for a recovery run, but i was trying to focus more on keeping my hr in the 140s (150s on hills). i know my easy days should focus more on maintaining my 65-75% hr zone and not worrying about time. plus i figure yesterday's long run is still influencing my muscles and heart. so, basically, i'm obviously not proud of my times but i am glad i held back, took it easy, and hopefully helped my legs and body recover. tomorrow lies mile repeats and thursday a tempo run.

pm run: 5 miles, 49:00 (9:48 avg pace), avg/max hr (144/163)

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