Sleeping In

AMish: 80 mins. incl. 5x60 sec. surges (11 miles)

I had the best of intentions this morning. I'd gone to bed the night before planning to get up and join the CRC group long run at McMullen Creek Greenway. But when our alarm went off at 6:30, my body was screaming at me that it needed more sleep. To be fair, I'd already been passed out for over eight hours, but I guess two consecutive days of 9+ hours on the sales floor plus yesterday's race had sufficiently zapped my energy reserves. Jordan got up; I rolled over.

My reward for sleeping in was the prospect of a solo long run in the sweltering heat of the late morning sun. I didn't make it to the Boyce parking lot until after 10, my motivation levels inversely proportional to the ever-increasing time on the clock. I parked, took a final drink of water, disrobed and vowed to at least run 10. Does that even count as a long run? Who knows. It does in the summer when you're taking a break from super structured training!

Surprisingly, the first half of the run wasn't too bad. The first few miles in the shaded back trails were pleasant, and even the exposed section from there to the second mile of the Footlocker course wasn't unbearable. Things got a bit dicey when I tried to incorporate some pickups into the second half of the run. I first experimented with this last Sunday on my run with Jordan. His coach (my former coach) Jeff Gaudette recommends incorporating pickups into longer runs and presents a compelling argument (here is Jordan's preamble with a link to Jeff's original article attached). Last week, though tough, I enjoyed the surges because they helped the second half of the run fly by. Today it was just too much. I guess the combination of yesterday's race in my legs plus the climbing temperatures translated into a death march for the final few miles after I'd completed the surges. Instead of worrying about the pace, I tried to focus on maintaining proper form and arm carriage all the way up the last hill to Boyce. Once back to the car I more or less collapsed onto the sidewalk and painted an indelible sweat outline of my body into the pavement.

Several minutes passed before I was recovered (and dry) enough to get in the car and head home. Once I arrived I found Jordan cooking up flapjacks and eggs and Caitlin suited up and ready to hit the pool. I didn't have long to think about my dismal run, and spending a "family day" with these two certainly helped buoy my spirits. After the past few days I'm eager to put this week behind me and move on to the next one.