Cruisin'

While I have grown somewhat frustrated over the past couple of weeks with my weak attempts at speed work, the one thing that continues to keep my mood upbeat has been the longrun . Over the past year and a half, I have turned from a runner who hates long runs and struggles through every single one of them, to someone who still hates them, but can manage the 20 miler without too many problems. While I seemed to have lost that 4th gear (and possible the 3rd gear as well), I can usually cruise pretty efficiently right below that marathon race pace without too much difficulty.

Yesterday was a struggle to complete the 8 miler that I had scheduled. I had thoughts of doing two runs, but everything on me was hurting yesterday. My hip was aching, my right foot was hurting in about 3 different places and my hamstring was screaming at me as well. I'm a pretty stubborn person, but even I know that when that many things hurt, running twice in one day isn't the best medicine for it. So instead of going for evening run, I opted for a long slow stretching session, which really seemed to help. I don't stretch often. Hardly at all really, but usually when I'm feeling all knotted up like this, a stretch will help, especially in the hips and knees. I think the pain there is being caused by a tight IT Band, so stretching really seems to relieve it. I also took a couple of Ibuprofen before bed, to see if that would help as well. I try not to take to many pain relievers while training, just so that I don't fool myself into thinking I'm recovering when I'm really just masking it.

So I was pleasantly surprised that upon waking up this morning, a lot of the nagging pains weren't there. The plan was to do the 17 mile route that I have on the way into work. I must have run this route at least 25 times last year, but for whatever reason, I have done it zero times this year, so it was nice to get back out there and conquer. It seems the longer I stay away from some running routes, the more I try and avoid them (yes, I'm a headcase).

I had the Garmin on but something weird was going on with the lap pace, so I couldn't really tell what pace I was running at for most of the run. I think I set it to reset the lap pace every quarter mile for my Wednesday workout, so it was meaningless for a long run. Anyway, the entire run was just a cruise. I was in control the entire time and felt my best during the last few miles of the run. This was proven when looking at the splits after the fact as I ran my last 7 miles under a 6:20 pace, which brought the overall pace to around a 6:26. It was nice way to get reacquainted with what was my favorite route last year. Hopefully, it was the first of many more good runs on it.

Now I'm off to tailgate and watch the Cubs and Sox do battle at US Cellular Field. I almost ashamed to admit that I'm a diehard Cubs fans and I'm going with a nice mix of Sox and Cubs fans, so it should be a good time. I won't be counting how many beers I'm drinking, like Mike, and I won't be running fast tomorrow. It will be recovery pace in the truest sense of the word.