Rest week devolves to lazy...

09/27/2009 - 10/03/2009 (Week 5)

First rest week, and I've got two things going against me. One is that pre-season is over, so there isn't 6:30 am practice to get my lazy ass out of bed in the morning. Two is that I have a history of post-achievement motivational issues. And yes, running 42 miles last week is an achievement... because that's only happened twice so far in the past 2 years. Sad, yeah, I know...

The wheels kind of came off the wagon early this week, with the dreaded 2 consecutive off days, but I rallied to cobble together 35 miles in 5 days. I think the situation is under control, but I was afflicted by some serious ennui for a while there. Part of the problem is that I've been requiring a ridiculous amount of sleep recently. Since I returned from Colorado, 7 hours isn't cutting it. Kind of disturbing... but I'll chalk it up to recovering from altitude.


Sunday: 7.8 miles, 1:07:03 for 3 x Washington Park Loops in Denver (8:36 min/mile)

(22:00/22:38/22:25 lap splits) Argh, feeling lousy today. Not sure exactly why, but it was harder and slower than yesterday. It didn't feel like a complete meltdown, so I just tried to keep some sort of a steady pace and not do anything crazy. Glad to be done. ~ 6 mile hike to ~9000ft with Peter and his parents afterwards.

Monday: Off. Traveling. Didn't perceive that I was super tired, but apparently I was.

Tuesday: Off. Slept in, and then had to work late... decided not to do a late night run, such that I could get up for a proper run tomorrow.

Wednesday: 7.1 miles, 1:00:32 Monterrey to RB and back (8:32 min/mile)

Felt lousy again, can't imagine why after so much rest... but my body usually feels sort of groggy and out of sorts after days off. Started really easy, picked it up a bit on the second half, but it was still slow overall. Not too stressed out about it, just needed to get out and do something today to get back on the ball.

Thursday: 9.2 miles, 1:16:25 Hillcrest/Sierra Madre/Huntington/El Molino (8:18 min/mile)

Still couldn't get up in the morning, but this time I forced myself to run after work. Running at night around Pasadena is actually really nice, but this time I was afflicted by gastrointestinal distress, which made it... less nice. Went easy planning to do ~ 10 miles, but had to cut off the last part and head home early due to the stomach situation becoming intractable. Felt really good other than that. I was kind of sad that I didn't get to work the El Molino hill, because I had to concentrate on not crapping my pants. Stomach hurt for hours afterwards, couldn't eat anything... bad times.

Friday: 6 miles, 49:20 Hillcrest/Orlando/Allen back on California (8:18 min/mile)

Shots in the morning, but had to run after work to account for the unintended rest day on Tuesday. Felt kind of sore and weak presumably due to lack of food, and stomach still feeling kind of bad, but it was much better than yesterday. Easy until last 0.4 miles down Marengo to get home, felt really good picking up the pace a little bit. Running on the pavement is starting to feel really good and easy, and the paces are coming down. Not sure what it is about the trails that makes it that much harder.

Saturday: 5.3 miles, 45:21 Monterrey to Third Bridge Loop (8:33 min/mile)

This run kind of felt like a chore. The 12 hour turnaround is still hard for me, but I decided to sacrifice this run to get back on the morning schedule rather than Sunday's long run. My legs felt mostly okay though, so I think the badness came from forgetting to take my Zyrtec yesterday night, so I was stuffy and chest felt tight and congested in the morning. Mostly easy, but had to pick it up the last 5 minutes, to avoid being passed by Old Guy.


Week Total: 35.4 miles, why don't I feel more rested? Oh, because of the sub-optimal configuration of off days...