Thursday, May 8, 2008

What's the deal with my legs?

I don't know what's going on. I don't feel the wheels are turning during training runs. I have strangely sore muscles, certainly outside the norm for my usual post-half marathon recovery. Did get a run in today, probably about 6 miles. Both quads were sore as was my left calf. I just feel so stiff and awkward. Could it really still be that damn 50K? With the deep snow, it probably worked me over more like a 60 or 70K, I guess. Certainly the time would fit better with those distances.

I am torn about what to do next. The long races appeal to me in terms of the experience of going off to these awesome memorable challenges. But I probably won't be able to find the time to train properly for such long races. Plus, long slow training runs simply don't appeal to me. The only way I can run long and slow is with the Girl. Alone, I can't run for more than two and a half hours.

Saturday, I won a half marathon with 350 runners. Three weeks ago I finished outside the top 10 out of 125 runners in a 50K. Shouldn't that tell me something? I could have run that 50K in 10 different ways and I still don't think I could have prevented such an impressive bonk. At about 8-minute miles, I don't think I get anything out of slowing further down. I could jog 10-minute miles for 20 miles and still crash. I like to run intervals or, lately, fartleks. I look forward to speed work but I'm not doing enough of it. I don't know what to do. Part of me wants to forget about training for anything longer than a half marathon. I could go back to doing 800m intervals on the track and get some speed back.

This summer, we have another 50K planned as part of our honeymoon (Angel Island 50K in San Francisco). I could run that as a fun race, hopefully watching the Girl kick some ultra ass.

I remember a particular race from my track days. There was a little bit of a money prize on the line. This one guy, who was likely a faster runner than me, tried to drop me for the entire 5K the race lasted. But I hung on and around the last turn, I turned on the afterburners. I won by a few yards; I miss the feeling of being that fast.

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