Two Hours, Take Two

Happy hump day!  I am making my way through this busy week, one step at a time.

Monday was originally supposed to be a rest day, but I had to move my Wednesday swim and Monday was the only day it would work.  I did this of course with Angie’s blessing.  I went off to the Y and was in the water at 11 am for an 1800 m broken endurance set swim.  The swim went well.  I had a couple of set of swim golf in there and I’m still not noticing a ton of progress on those numbers but I just have to keep at it.

Tuesday I knocked out an easy 30 minute run over lunch.  Well, it felt easy but I actually had a bit of speed, which was nice!  I was hoping that this would only be a sign of good things to come for this week…  In the evening it was spin class and it was not an easy night!  We ran through a bunch of :30 hard/:30 easy intervals and later a 12 minute time trial.  Crazy stuff!  I pushed hard, although I do admit that I did dial the odd set back by one gear knowing what I had in store for me on Wednesday.  It definitely wasn’t sandbagging, I just needed to make sure the legs would have a bit of juice.

Wednesday….a crazy day…  When I mentioned that I would be arriving at the starting line of the Glencoe Icebreaker 10K tired.  No kidding.  I had a 90 minute long run on the schedule for Wednesday.  Originally I thought I could run from home into work but then I realized that I wouldn’t actually be at work.  I was scheduled for day one of two for a First Aid course in NE Calgary.  So no running before work, no running over lunch….that left running in the evening at 6 pm.  When I wasn’t successful in finishing my 2 hour run on Saturday I talked to Angie about whether I should make any changes to my schedule this week.  She advised that I run for 90 minutes and that if I felt strong I could add in the extra 30 minutes but to totally play it by ear. 

I got home, immediately changed into capris and a short sleeve top.  I tied an extra long sleeve top around my waist, threw two Hammer gels in a waist pack and grabbed a bottle of water.  I set off on my exact same route, running loops through the various cul-de-sacs around my neighbourhood.  It was still windy out, but it wasn’t nearly as biting as it was Saturday morning.  I was feeling strong!  And my mile splits were fast!!  I went out with the mindset that I was running 2 hours.  The first seven miles were great!  After that the legs got a bit tired as I started to hit more uphill territory.  My espresso Hammer gel with caffeine kicked in and the pace picked back up slightly.  For the final assault on the legs I ran up a big hill just over 10 miles in.  I climbed to the top, then brought it home to finish up the 2 hour run.  Considering that it was my hilliest run, it was also my fastest long run of the year.  I’m definitely feeling well set up for the hilly Police Half at the end of the month!

Tomorrow is Thursday and I wish I could say things slow down ahead of Glencoe…but no…  Should make things interesting Sunday morning!  There may be something to this running on tired legs thing…