Week 4, Day 7

Another easy run was on the schedule for today, just 30-45 minutes. I decided to go for a trail run, which might end up longer than 45 minutes, but I would be using some different muscles and not going very fast. I also thought that it might help alleviate the threatening achilles tendonitis.

I went out around 10:45 am, after a long dog walk around the neighborhood. It was another beautiful day. The trails are in great shape and the woods are lush despite the lack of rain. I thought again about how lucky I am to have these trails right next to my house. I thought about Libby and all the hours we spent together hiking in there. I thought about how trail running is good for you because you use more different muscles than you do when you're road running, without the repetitive pounding; but at the same time it is dangerous, because you are never more than a step away from disaster and injury.

I covered 3.7 miles in 44:51, which is 12:07 pace, but this is trail running, y'know, so it is supposed to be ridiculously slow. Some people say it's 1 1/2 times slower. So that would mean I actually would have gone 1.5 times farther out on the road. That would be 1.85 miles farther, or 5.55 miles. 8:05 pace? Not exactly an easy day. So...I think that is kind of an exaggeration about how much harder trail running really is. Anyway, I wasn't pushing that hard.

Iced the knee afterwards, but not the achilles because it felt okay.

The online coach at McMillan said that I can do the 10k next weekend and just do an easy run next Monday instead of the speed session. So I went ahead and signed up.

I read an article in Marathon & Beyond yesterday about the importance of sleep to our health and performance as runners. I decided I'm going to do as the article suggests and start keeping track of how much sleep I get each night and how I feel each day after various amounts of sleep. I'm going to start paying more attention to how much I need and whether or not I am getting what I need.

So, last night I went to bed at 11:30 pm and woke up around 6:45 am, for a total of 7 hours and 15 minutes. Didn't have any trouble falling asleep last night. Felt pretty rested today.