After returning from California, I had a touch of a cold: a little bit scratchy sore throat and nose. Not surprising after a whirlwind week "vacation" that left me more tired then when we left! I took it a little easy until last week Wednesday, when I rode the road bike for the first time in awhile...and took some hill-climbing a bit too fast.
The next 2 days, I developed a fever, and felt like garbage. 3 days in a row of no running, and a couple where I barely left the house. Ugh. Sunday, though, I was feeling better and rested...
So I ran a (slow) marathon.
This training has been all about building base miles, hoping that it pays off later. That's what all the cool kids have been doing, anyway.
The upshot is, my recovery after long runs seems much improved. Although there's a constant low-level dullness in the legs, I'm still able to get up and run as needed or desired, which is good. The downside is, I feel slow. I don't have that feedback that I usually get from a day of speedwork, which is what I usually do in early Spring as prep for a marathon.
So this Wednesday, still with a dull feeling in the legs, I hit some 8x800's on the road. The first one felt slow, as usual, and I was willing to be generous with my times, just wanted a baseline and consistency. So I was surprised to find my first lap around 10 seconds faster than expected. That means I needed to slow down on the next one...
But didn't. A half-mile at a time, they all ticked off pretty consistently. My legs do not feel snappy, but I did feel like my heart rate and breathing recovered quickly, and that this workout was as aerobically easy as it ever gets.
Huh. I guess that means the base-mileage, aerobically, is working as it should. Hopefully, future anaerobic training, and further adaptation to the mileage, will get some snap into the legs. Feeling much better about this situation.
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