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Weeks of: 2/26-3/04 & 3/05-3/11

2/26-3/04


 Monday: 16 miles in 1:51:01
Tuesday: 9 mile fartlek in 56:03
Wednesday: 6 miles easy
Thursday: OFF
Friday: 6 miles easy + strides
Saturday: 11 miles total - 5k race, 1st in 16:06
Sunday: OFF
TOTAL: 48 miles in 5 days

This week started well enough, I got in the long run I missed on Sunday and then a true fartlek workout on Tuesday. My plan had been to alternate longer easier days with shorter faster days in classic Lydiard fashion, and that's how this week started. I ran slow for my long run, but that's the only gear I had. For the fartlek I just ran hard for 30 seconds to 2 minutes whenever I felt like it. I felt more fatigued as the run went on, so this one was a mistake -- especially the day after the long run. I should have taken an easy day instead.

I needed all easy days the rest of the week, especially since I had a low-key race that I was nervous about. I was planning on a longer marathon-effort tempo on Thursday, but I just didn't have the energy. The race on Saturday was a "well, let's just got out, run hard, and see what happens." It was the Bockfest 5k, which I won for the fourth time, but it was the slowest 5k I'd run in a long time and also one of the more difficult. I just had no extra gear, especially on the uphills. Every stride felt like the end of the marathon. As I wrote in my log, "something is wrong but I have no idea what." Ever since getting sick about 3 weeks ago, my energy levels haven't come around. Every run just has that heavy quads feeling.

That 5k wrecked me pretty good.

3/05-3/11


 Monday: OFF
Tuesday: 6 miles easy
Wednesday: AM 5 miles easy / PM 5 miles easy
Thursday: 6 miles easy
Friday: OFF
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF
TOTAL: 22 miles in 3 days

After Bockfest, I needed two whole days off before I could think about running again. Seriously, the morning after I had nothing left in the tank. Even then, all I could run was slow and no more than 30-45 minutes. My legs were just drained.

With the Wednesday run, I thought I'd start to add in short doubles. I figured if 30-45 minutes was my limitation, then maybe I could just start running that twice a day for some semblance of mileage. In the past that has aggravated my Achilles, but the nice thing about running so little recently is that my Achilles has been feeling halfway decent. At least this time around it's not my limiting factor.

But every day of running this week was more of a struggle than the day before. It was accumulating fatigue, but not the good kind. When I couldn't bring myself to do a marathon-effort tempo on Friday or Saturday, I just kind of gave up. No use in flogging myself for very little physical gain. I know I don't have mono, but other than that I'm at a loss.

At this point, I'm 50/50 on whether or not I'll actually run Boston. In all my years of running, I've never experienced something like this.
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