Knowing Your Body

     To start it off.......i apologize leslie kathleen and mel for failing the 5am run yet again this morning. I suck...moving on. I was going to label this story......EPIC FAIL or something along those lines....but in all honesty it was probably a good run.

     First of all yesterday was my recovery from the weekend of fun. I "ran" a whole 2 miles at a slow pace just to get some of the toxins out of my body and attempt to come back to life. Today was planned to be a bit different. I was ready to run my hills in using a speedy pace. I tried to do so, but i failed. I started off feeling good. I passed quite a few joggers/walkers/ and even a biker on the trail. I was moving well and feeling good which was shown by going a bit too fast at points. I finally hit the point where i realized I was only halfway done. My calves began to lock up and my Achilles really began to hurt and feel tight. Due to running for too many years now I know what is run through sort of pain and what pain is oh crap not good stop pain/tightness. I decided to walk twice .07 miles twice on the way back (5 mile total run). I stretched out a bit and just tried to relax the calves a bit. I felt bad because I was keeping up with what I wanted, but i realized i just wasn't ready to handle that type of run yet. It is important for a runner to learn what you can push through to become a better runner and when it is needed to stop. Stopping does not mean a runner is weak as long as it doesn't become a normality! If it does it is time to switch up your training schedule.

     The plan was 5 mile hills get faster each mile. Started out wanting a 7:15 and 5 seconds each mile faster. I started semi decently...7:11, 7:05, 7:02 last two miles were low eights not counting walking time. The hills, both up and down, really hurt me after the first half. I am not sure why that was since I have run that so many times in the past. I started to panic not wanting people to pass me after I started walking which is how i ended up finishing with ok times. It is really silly that is the case, but i think the speed needs to stop for right now. I am going too fast too soon. I need to get used to being on my feet a bit more before i push it that hard.