GOOD (BUT WEIRD) RUN

What the hell is this for? Read on!

Yesterday was a really odd run. I had taken Tuesday off like normal and then my sister had a birthday party on Wednesday. So I had two days of rest, which I rarely ever get. To make up for it, I'll be running three straight days; yesterday, today, and then twelve on Saturday.

The run yesterday was weird because my legs felt GREAT. During marathon training they have mostly felt very heavy and sluggish. Normally when I am running my legs are the thing giving me the most complaints (the usual leg/lung balance). Yesterday, however, they felt much more rested than normal. Now, I had only had two days of rest, so there were still a couple sore points and pangs of "use," but for the most part they felt awesome. Really gave me confidence that when I taper for my marathon my legs will be able to recover and fuel up for the race.

What held me back yesterday was my lungs. When I go out for an "easy" run my lungs are usually the last of my worries. My easy pace yesterday ended up being 8:24/mile including a mile that was 8:14. For my perceived effort, that type of pace was quite surprising! It was a little weird that my lungs were feeling it, but I guess I was pushing it past marathon pace and when you run a marathon your lungs will be feeling it a little bit. Which, by the way, I think I have settled on my marathon pace. 8:30s for a sub-3:45 marathon. That is for another post though.

I'm volunteering at the Tualatin Crawfish Crawl 5k tomorrow morning. Should be fun! I'll be directing racers on the course. I am about a quarter mile out and will have two different spots to patrol, one on the way out, and other on the way in. Should be fun and a lot less of a commitment than the Hippie Chick Half Marathon since it is only a 5k. Slowest competitor should be about an hour as opposed to four hours at the half. Hopefully I can get out of there reasonably fast as I need to fit in a twelve mile run before my Hood to Coast meeting at 1pm. Oh vey!