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August 23, 2006
Ouch
Last week was kind of a big week for me - 34 miles. It's the most I've run in a single week in a long time - since before Madison. In theory, my training plan has been building up to that peak gradually, with a recovery week this week before I go back to hitting the high (for me) miles as I gear up for Grand Rapids. In reality, however, heat waves and work and other realities of life have meant that last week was the first week in over a month that I've actually run all my scheduled miles. Instead of gradually moving up from 25-mile weeks to 35-mile weeks, I jumped up to a 35-mile week after 3 weeks of hitting 20-25 miles.
Oops.
The big mileage increase last week was the main reason I was expecting Sunday's long run to suck. My legs had been feeling tired all week anyway, and I figured they would just be toast by Sunday morning. However, all was A-OK. Yesterday was a rest day, but I wound up taking the bike out for a bit, mostly because I wanted to take it in for a pre-tri safety inspection. (I wasn't concerned about there being anything wrong with it, but the inspection was free so I figured I might as well get it checked out, rather than discover Saturday morning there was some sort of problem.) That's when I felt the extra miles. That's when I realized my legs were most definitely toast. On top of that, it was exceptionally windy out, which made for some pretty slow riding as I was determined to take it pretty easy.
By yesterday, I figured it would be OK. I had an easy 4 miles scheduled for the afternoon, and I wasn't worried about it at all. I didn't run on Monday, so surely by Tuesday evening I'd be recovered enough so that an easy 4 miles would be nothing.
Oh, how very wrong I was. I took it incredibly easy during the whole run because I had to. Everything hurt, and by the turnaround point my shins were screaming for me to stop. It wasn't fun, but it sure as heck kept my pace down. Today? Everything from my knees down is just achy. I'm trying very hard to not think about the fact that I have a track workout tonight, because absolutely no good can come of it. I'll just have to make sure I go into it well-hydrated, try not to set any land-speed records, and spend a lot of quality time stretching afterwards.
Meanwhile... ouch. At least I've learned a valuable lesson about sticking to my schedule and finding ways to get the miles in, though. I hope.
Posted by Dawn at August 23, 2006 07:30 AM
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Comments
I did the same thing with my mileage last week, for the exact same reason. It was really tough.
Do a really slow warm up on the track, your legs will bounce back. You are doing great!
When is Grand Rapids?
Posted by: ali at August 23, 2006 10:04 AM
Hang in there. I am feeling the same thing too. Epson salt needs to be on my list tonight along with MORE ice.
Posted by: Denise "Firefly" at August 23, 2006 06:44 PM
Keep on hanging. Perhaps an ice bath will do the trick. I hate them, but Cindy (tri-polar express) swears by them. You're doing great. When is your tri?
Posted by: Juls at August 24, 2006 11:12 AM
Ouch.
I'm agreeing with Juls. An ice bath is definitely in your forecast.
Posted by: RunningJayhawk at August 26, 2006 06:49 PM