Recovery Runs

The legs were not happy with me this morning. As I mentioned previously, the 18 miler went great yesterday, but today I had to pay the piper. The legs were rubbery for the 9 miles this morning, but it was just fatigue and I was able to work my through it. I felt like I was absolutely crawling for the entire run, but wound up averaging a 6:39 pace. I'm not sure what to think about that. While the pace is nice to look at it, I know that it was probably too fast for what should have been a recovery run. I'm just no good at recovery.

Part of the problem is that pretty much every run I ever do is against the clock. Not against the watch, where I'm trying to run at a certain pace, but against the clock. It's either hurry up and get home before the kids wake up, or hurry up and get back to work before lunch is over, or hurry and up and get to work so I'm not late. I can't remember the last time I've been able to run without somewhere to be immediately after. Now I'm not complaining. I know I can just wake up earlier and not have to race the clock, but I don't. In one sense, the structure saves me. I only have a few windows to run each day so I either take advantage or I don't run. Without that structure, I'd most likely be doing the same thing I did for most of early 20's. Put off running until the last possible minute of each day and hope that something comes up that will give me an excuse to skip it. That's not a good strategy for consistent training (or racing).

This afternoon I did 7 more miles without a watch and things felt much better than they did this morning. The legs were still a bit tight, but once they loosened up, all was well. Chicago is having some unbelievable weather lately so that makes the running much more enjoyable. By the lake, the temps have been in the 70's with no humidity almost everyday for the past week. Since I do my fair share of complaining about the weather, I figure I'd better acknowledge it when it does cooperate. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt some faster stuff which I've had very little luck with lately. Hopefully, that will change.