Feb 25

FIT:
A run unlike any other I've had in a while.

Today, I was tired from working regular hours, plus extra nightly meetings. I was feeling surprisingly good after yesterday's nine. Minimal wear-and-tear. No soreness or tiredness, just my inner knees feeling a bit poundy/burny. Seems like it's on a bone, right on the surface, a burning sensation. I guess that's good, that it's not damaged connective tissue or other soft stuff, and that it almost seems like it's just on the surface. So going up steps wasn't easy, because the outsides of my thighs on each leg, close to my knee felt unstable, but nothing serious. I just went slowly.

Because I was tired, and was already feeling kind of cold in my house, I kept debating between going to the gym and biking, or staying inside and doing strength. Finally, after much procrastinating and a fair bit of eating (unsatiability maybe to re-fuel from yesterday? or maybe because I didn't have my usual two mid-day snacks). Anyway, made it, and had brought my racing flats, in case I wanted to test out a bit of slow recovery running.

I ended up trying in my Brooks Trance 8's with arches, and it was slow but doable goings at first. Soon, though, I loosened up, and things were feeling easy, so I'd crank it up, and before you know it, even paces that are usually challenging for me felt almost effortless! I was amazed. Did yesterday's workout somehow improve my cardio system that much? I didn't think adaptations could happen that quickly, but man! I didn't want to push my luck, so I decided to cap it at 4.1. It would bring my 2-day total to the goal 13.1, anyway. So 4.1 in 30:48, 7:31 ave. Something that I'd be happy with any day, but especially on a day that should be a recovery run. And I was just looking back at my paces for 4-ish-milers in the past 2 months, and there's actually a decent amount of speeding up between Feb and Jan... I hadn't noticed it before. I had just thought that Feb was more consistent weekly mileage, but lacking in longer long runs vs. Jan, but there was more speed, so progress is being made!

Splits> 8:29 (needed warming up after yesterday's tightness), 14:48 for 2, 7:30 for 1.1. Took a mile to get into the groove, but relatively flew for the rest.

After the run, it almost felt like I hadn't done anything cardio-wise... so strange.

I think yesterday's stretching and the consistent icing post-run have helped. Strengthening... hard to do consistently b/c I often feel on the brink of injury or am really tired, and it seems like a strenghtening exercise may be the thing that pushes me over the line... dunno.