Recovery... nope, progression run

For a few hours after yesterday's 20+ miler I felt pretty burnt out. I pretty much just laid around the house and ate. I have realized that I'm not fueling well enough on my long winter runs, although I bring plenty of food with me I don't actually eat much. Last year I started eating a lot of trail mix on my long runs, but it's hard to eat that stuff when you've got gloves or mittens on. For all of yesterday's efforts I only had one gel and one package of Power Bar Energy Blasts. My breakfast helped set me up to be fueled during the run but as soon as I stopped running I crashed pretty hard. I wasn't sure how I'd feel today but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there wasn't any significant soreness when I got up in the morning. The only issue worth mentioning is a little ache on the outside of my right foot, between the heel and the ankle bone, probably the result of rolling my ankle at some point (or multiple points) during the run yesterday.

I went out in the morning for an hour long walk with the dogs on Blackstrap Hill. It was a good way to loosen things up in my legs, and it also confirmed that I didn't want to try to run any of my local trails today. Lots of ice. So after bouncing around a few of the local road loops in my head, ranging from 5.5 to 10 miles, I came up with a new route I had never run before that worked out to be close to 11 miles, and deliberately included some good hills. The intention was to go out at an easy pace and see how things felt.

Things felt surprisingly good, so after 4 miles the run turned into a bit of a progression run (helped by a few downhill miles near the end). Miles 5-10: 7:54, 7:50, 7:43, 7:35, 7:13, 6:51.

A great way to end a pretty solid week. I started the week with a few easy runs to deal with a strained calf muscle resulting from the combination of last weeks long run, snowshoe race and then an unexpected plyometrics workout. Luckily the calf wasn't an issue at all this weekend so I was able to get in two quality runs.

time: 1:21:31
distance: 10.7 miles
pace: 7:37

weather: upper 30's, windy

gear: Brooks Cascadia (from 2008), shorts, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, 2x gloves, hat