What a difference a week makes!
Last weekend I was complaining about my complete lack of energy, enthusiasm, and inability to run over a couple of miles. I made plenty of excuses (my specialty), but did give a lot of credit to Whistlestop recovery.
Thursday I went out for 8 miles, and it felt comfy and where I should be. To my surprise, I did it in 58 minutes. Cool. I felt I was back.
I ran Afton this morning, hoping to run into someone I could run with for a least a little bit. It was pretty quite at 7am, but I knew Karen was out there somewhere.
I decided to do the loop as a nice "solid" run, not pushing, but not holding back. I was hoping to do a little more than the 25k loop, maybe getting 20 miles in.
What a spectacular sunrise! That was worth the trip.
I only looked at my watch at my usual "waypoints" to see how I was tracking. Hmm, going faster than I thought, no pain, whatever. After the campground hill, I still felt fresh (I had run the entire course so far). I used the flat river stretch to get to a "good" pace, while leaving some on the table for the meat grinder. I got through all of that to my next waypoint (out of the woods before you head off to the snowshoe loop), and I was about 1 hour 53. Damn, I felt good.
The snowshoe loop was mowed, and the fallen trees have been cleared, so I started putting on the speed.
The loop was fun. Got to the bridge and.. if I push it, I can pr this baby. Two minutes later I see Jeffrey doing the loop counter clockwise. I say high, but am on pace to pr. I will try and comeback around to see him.
That last hill seems to be getting easier, as I was able to run up it with only heavy sucking towards the top.
I came in at 2:22:50. Sweet! my pr by about 30 seconds last time I was there. This was huge for me as I had a lot left in the tank. I hope to get that time down before the big races next year, but I need to run with someone who is faster to show me where to push and where to back off, and how much. I kind of know, but feel I am still kind of green at that type of running.
I looped back around to hook up with Jefferey and finished out my 20. We saw Karen and Bryan down by the river, and she was looking strong. She is doing her first 24 hour next month. Good luck!
Now I am pumped to see what I can pull together before the winter consumes me and my running (my goal is to not let that happen).
Cheers
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4 comments:
Wow - you looked fresh as a daisy for having already put in that many miles this morning! Terrific job, that's great.
Good job, Matt... nice to hear you're back as strong as ever. What a great day to be out, too bad I missed ya. Karen was still going strong at mile 39. I mentioned people kept joining her and then leaving after she ran them into the ground (that was true for me anyway), and her last words to me were "Another one bites the dust". hehe.
Very speedy, Matt!
Are you going to do the Afton 50K next year?
Hi Matt, it was good to see you out there at Afton. I was surprised to see you mentioned me in your blog so nice of you. I ended up doing 41 miles saturday. Got in my 10 hour goal. I was so lucky to have a great group of people to run with. Thanks to Phillip, Bryan, Jim and Wayne. The time really flew by.
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