Week Two

It's week two of my 'recover from my half marathon and get back to feeling good and strong when I run rather than tired and sluggish' phase.

Week one went as predicted. The first 5k run was slow and sluggish. The second 5k run was a little less slow and a little less sluggish. The 10k Saturday run was slow and sluggish to start, got better about midway through but then felt pretty tough the last few minutes.

Week two started yesterday. I got up early and went for a 7k run. It was a huge improvement from the week before. I ran the entire thing without stopping at all. Even the street lights cooperated so I was able to warm up, settle into a groove and run smooth from start to finish.

Every kilometre was a few seconds faster than the one before.

I finished feeling good, knowing I was capable of adding a few extra kilometres if I needed to.

It's pretty rewarding to have that kind of run and it makes me look forward to the next one.

Thursday I will do another 7k. Bright and early. In Windsor.

I'll be there volunteering for Animas at a pretty wicked event and the pre-event breakfast meeting starts at 8am. So I'll be up early enough to get a 45 minute run and a shower in on time to be ready to roll. Apparently there is a lovely riverside trail right near the hotel so I'm looking forward to run through uncharted territory.

Saturday, I'll be home again and I am planning to run 12k instead of 10k. If, after all that, I'm still feeling frisky, next week I start interval training.

I am committed to increasing my strength and speed this summer so I'll be alternating hill work and speed work on Thursday mornings. Now that I know I'm almost back to my pre-race fitness, I'm excited to add this new variable to my training.

The best thing about having run more than ten half marathons is that I have learned the patterns of what happens before, during and after a race and I know what I need to do to get through the tough patches.

Like the first week back after a race.

In my opinion, one of the toughest weeks of the race training cycle.

I'm sure glad it's over...for now.