Springlike Weather

It’s finally getting nice around here!! Last night when I ran my 9 miles, it was 40 degrees…this made for some difficulty as I don’t know how to do anything but put on every item that I own and head out for a slow cold run! I ended up in a 3 season top and my Illuminite Shell (very light weight and wanted it for the visibility since by the end it would be dark) and heavy tights and lined windbreakers…I could’ve skipped the heavy tights and been fine. I did keep gloves and hat on the whole time. Unfortunately even with the nice weather, the run was sluggish. I managed a 9:10 pace for 9 miles, with 10 x 100 strides, which were OK. I did them later in the run, started around mile 6, but they weren’t feeling great. My hamstring and IT band still feel kind of tight and it was pulling on the run. It was nice to not be wearing 6 extra pounds though and watching the snow melt and feeling like spring might be on the way is nice. I got home and stretched and used my foam roller. The ITB was screaming from it but things felt better after. Hurt enough to make my foot shake a bit as I held the position over the sorest spots.

Today I went for a 5 miler at lunch since I’m meeting a friend for dinner and shopping after work. I skipped the strength training today as I just didn’t feel up to it and will do it tomorrow instead. My leg was again feeling very tight on the run and I know it was a slow one, but the weather was awesome. Sunny and 43 or so when I started. I was slightly overdressed again, this time light tights and heavier pants, a 3 season top and windbreaker, but the windbreaker has zip off sleeves so I took the sleeve off and was fine. In fact I was gloveless after about a mile too. This was meant to be a recovery run, so I went watchless as well and just enjoyed the sun and warmth…now it’s still not 100% up to where I find it warm (my preferred temps are 65-75, yes, even for a marathon distance! I have very low cold tolerance and very high warm tolerance!!) but it’s so nice to be out of all the layers I’ve been in.

I’m still feeling a bit run down and sluggish though. I know it was suggested by a friend that I need more rest/sleep…well, last night I was asleep by 9, up at 10:30 and again at 3:30 to use the bathroom but I slept well other than that. Granted I was lower on sleep Sunday and Monday which probably accounted for the sluggish run last night. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I have 10 miles general aerobic on the schedule but I think I’m going to run 4 at lunch and do 8 after work and give myself a little more time and energy to get some stuff done. I know it can’t fully be that I’m not eating enough, as granted I am still trying to cut calories and get down 4 more pounds for race weight, but I seem to be eating more than enough as I am always in the 2200 or so calorie range. The biggest problem is probably that it’s not necessarily “quality” calories all the time in there…I like too much crap. Need to work more on cutting that out I think.

Anyway, enough for now. I meant to bring my camera in today so I could post a picture of something, will try to remember tomorrow!