Recovery Run

I really had to fight the temptation to base the mileage for today's run on getting a nice round number for my weekly mileage. Following yesterday's 50k I only needed 8.7 miles to get up to 60 for the week. That's not high mileage for a lot of ultra runners, but it is for me. Although I'm sure I probably could have gotten myself through the miles needed to reach that number it seemed pretty pointless and arbitrary, so I went with a convenient 7 mile road loop from home.

I was pleasantly surprised not to feel any significant ill effects from yesterday's tough conditions when I got up this morning. A little stiff all over, but nothing major. The most noticeable sore spot was my right glute, but a few minutes on a tennis ball took care of that. I was definitely moving a bit slow in the morning, so Emma and I took the dogs out for a nice long walk on some of our local trails which helped to loosen everything up. By the time the afternoon rolled around I had lost most of the motivation to run, and even though it was another beautiful day I found it hard to get myself out the door.

Once I was running, of course, I was glad to be out there. Even though I felt good I wanted to be sure to keep this run under control and easy, I really wanted it to be a recovery run and not another workout. I felt lucky that yesterday's run hadn't beat me up too much, but I did feel pretty well worked over.

The miles actually ticked over pretty quick, but I tried to focus on what felt like a comfortable pace rather than getting too caught up in what my mile splits were. Emma had warned me to take it easy when I left the house, she knows that I have a tendency to push the pace a bit too much on my recovery runs.

It's worth mentioning that this was my second run in my new Saucony Kinvaras, only my second road run in the past three weeks. Both times I've worn these shoes I have felt a pinch on the little toe of my right foot, which surprised me because the shoe looks really wide in the toe box. I hope this is something that goes away once the shoes are broken in. The toe wasn't an issue at all during yesterday's 50k, and I was wearing a relatively narrow shoe then (Inov-8 Oroc 280). Maybe this was the result of swollen feet.

time: 55:48
distance: 7.01 miles
pace: 7:58

weather: mid 30's sunny

gear: Saucony kinvara 2, wool socks, short tights, 2x long sleeve short, 2x gloves, hat