10/28 - 11/3

Mon: 6.5-miles
Tues: 4x800m (3:09-3:13), 4x400m (89-91)
Wed: 6-miles
Thurs: 6-miles + strides
Fri: Hot Yoga (60min)
Sat: 4-miles + strides
Sun: City of Oaks Half Marathon
Total: 42-miles

Matt and I might have got a little turned around on Monday's run, making it 6.5 miles instead of 6 miles. I felt ok, but still a little tight. Wednesday's run felt ok too. And Thursday's run did as well (we ran part of the course). I actually felt the best on Thursday (and I got to run with Rita!), but we were going pretty slow. The strides felt... eh, tight. I did yoga for the first time in 2 months on Friday. I should probably do yoga more, but it's the most expensive of my cross-training activities. Saturday's shake-out run felt like Thursday's shake-out run (and I got to run with Rita again!).

Tuesday's track workout went ok. We were supposed to keep the 800's at half marathon pace and the 400's at 10k pace. I wanted to stretch my legs out a bit. The 800's were more around 5k-ish pace, and the 400's were 3k-ish pace... actual paces, not "track" paces. My legs felt kind of tight, but ok. They were no tighter than they are after a long and/or fast track workout, but that workout wasn't really either of those. In any event, I foam rolled the crap out of my legs that night.

City of Oaks went ok. I would have preferred to run under 1:35 (official chip time was 1:36:27), but that didn't happen. My legs/back tightened up on the uphills, and fighting that probably made my breathing a little worse than it should have been at that pace. It hurt. If I had any doubt in my mind that I needed to use November as a recovery month, that race pretty much sealed the deal. However, no one that I train with on a regular basis had the "best race of their life" owing to the fact that the course is pretty difficult. Everyone did reasonably well... happy with their race, but just not thrilled. That's about where I'm at. I know that I couldn't really have done much more, I couldn't even bend over after to get my clothes out of the bag because my back/hip/hamstrings were that tight. But I have run that (well, a similar) about 5 minutes faster. In fact, my half split at the marathon last year was only a little over a minute slower. I was in better shape then, but I think the main thing was that I wasn't injured.

Having said all this, I do enjoy the City of Oaks races. A lot of local runners run one of the three, or volunteer/cheer, so I get to see a lot of people. A few of my friends did do well (as in placing overall), so I am happy for them. It was a nice day. And, I DIDN'T THROW UP AFTER! Wahooo! Seriously, this is the first race over 10-miles since last year at this time that I haven't. Now, I didn't feel great, but I didn't throw up. One step at a time. I do want to figure this out though. Matt said my face was covered in salt after. I do notice that this tends to happen to me more than other people. Maybe it is something to do with electrolytes.

Ok, time to swim and cross train. I want to go into marathon training relatively healthy. I'm thinking of cutting running to 3-4 days a week for a while. We'll see. I'm sick of being injured. Running just to run isn't getting me anywhere.