Getting back to it…

All in all, not a bad first week back: 63 miles with one day off. One long run (16) and one track workout (well, sort of! Post earlier in the week below :).

I had almost forgotten what it meant to be this sore 🙂 I’m almost embarrased to report it, but yes — my quads were completely beat up after my 16 miler on Saturday. Yes, yes, it was undoubtedly the first week of mileage leading into the 16 miler, but still. I have not been so sore after just 16 miles in a really long time! I hobbled up and down the stairs afterwards & laughed at myself.

Sunday I went for a slow shake-out jog, and although felt better after the run than before, I decided to postpone my Monday track workout until later in the week. There was no way these quads, which still ached to massage, were going to be able to do all-out 200s.

One thing I’ve learned about coming back: soreness like this that lasts more than a couple of days can only be remedied by a day off. In the past I’ve tried to continue to train, just easy miles, in hopes that this soreness would take care of itself (because honestly, it never takes more than a day to recover after a long run — much less recovering from “just” a 16 miler).

It’s not often you get to feel like this, so I’m trying to enjoy it (guess it is sort of fun to have pushed yourself to this level of soreness!) – sort of :).

Tomorrow will be my first tempo workout, and I’ll venture over to do it with the Carleton women’s team. My goal? To run as hard as I can for as long as I can (written in 6 miles in 6:00 pace). It’s the first one, and I obviously don’t have my legs underneath me yet. But, unlike other cycles when I’ve allowed myself to lackadaisically come back into training, being mentally positive and tough, I’m… well, I don’t know how to describe it, but I’m just different starting this cycle. Perhaps it’s because I’ve sort of said, “I know I can run faster than a 2:44” and I have the unsatisfied-PR fire lit in me. Perhpas it’s because I’ve sort of told myself that I’m allowing myself one more marathon — or at least one more spring/summer/fall — to see what I’m capable of. That’s a pretty short window, and I have a lot of work to do.

Like Jerry has asked, “How fast do you want to be?”. You can’t know unless you give it everything you have, don’t allow yourself to think “I hope I can keep up!” (which was honestly my first thought when I was going to do my first tempo workout with Carleton), and do it all with that “Let’s just see what I can do” smile and attitude. So — let’s get after it!

Interesting analysis from Flotrack:

http://www.flotrack.org/blog/41049-Are-US-Elite-Women-Marathoners-Really-Improving