3/28/06: Five Painfully Slow Miles at The Park…

So…I was eager to get running again since I hadn’t ran since Sunday. The weather was crazy cool for a day in March…but also very humid. I observed some of Houston best runners were out hitting the trails and doing their speedwork drills. It was very exhilarating and totally got me in the mood to run, and run well…

So…I start stretching and get all the kinks worked out…I am mentally preparing myself at this point and catch Sam whiz by and I shout at him real quick before I go…I’m thinking: ‘Legs-let’s run like gizelles today, nice and light and quick…’ Then as I get going, reality sets in. My legs are sore, heavy and I feel like anything BUT a gizelle. Perhaps-more like iron-lead weights at the gym or an elephant tiptoeing through the tulips, lol! But seriously…

I managed a few slow miles, and run into Sam again (not literally, mind you) before he decides to run with me until the edge of the Park towards where he parks his car…I am blocking anything my legs are saying to me at this point. ‘Behave,’ I tell them, ‘You can’t suck now that you are running with Sam.’ They behave, and we run a fast ¾/mile together…I didn’t say much as I felt like crap and he was pushing me…but it felt soooo good to let the legs do what they wanted to do…which was go.

Although I finished the run out slower then I would have liked, for a recovery run, I think I did ALRIGHT. Tomorrow is a SMARTie speedwork (8x400m) and I am really excited since this is one of my favorite workouts too…a lot more fun then 30/30’s and having 200m to recover in between repeats really makes a difference in my performance…we’ll see!

The STATS:
5 miles

46:08 total running
ave. 9:13/mile

mile1: 9:15
mile2: 8:09 (dang, SAM! :)
mile3: 9:26
mile4: 9:41
mile5: 9:35

Heart-rate: 171 ave/190 max
Weather: cool, mid 60’s, but maybe 100% humidity.