Mike the Slug

Sluggish, tired, lazy, slowish pace are words that appear lately in my handwritten log of runs that I still keep. Started out on Monday, a rest day, which was merely 'bit stiff and tired' from the 16 miles on Sunday.

Tues was an easy 7.5 miles in 59:00 around the town and 'nothing much happened'. I felt the pace was slow (7:51/mi) with effort and heartrate up higher than desired. 'Tired and listless feeling' but it was a nice day with sun and cloud instead of more rain.

Weds was a 'lazy' day or at least that's how things were feeling at the start of the run. Decided to head out for some hill repeats in preparation for the hills that will be faced this coming weekend around the Cabot Trail. The hill on the Bar Road is actually called the Bunny Hill locally but it's not because of the lack of steepness but rather the fact that one of the residents raises bunnies and there are always running around loose. There's even a cute little sign for 'Bunny Crossing' with a picture of a hopping creature.

Getting back to the hill, it's a fairly steep 1/2 mile decline down to the beach with a couple of undulations and steeper portions. The GPS says it was about 150' drop and started out with a down run in 3:10 at a controlled pace to save the quads as much as possible. After a short rest to get the heartrate down under 110 it was back up the same route in about 4:05 with HR hovering around 150 or 90% for most of the climb. Short rest to let the HR get down and repeat, etc for a total of 4 miles of the hill. After the last one I was tempted to go for 5 but the aching quads begged to differ and instead headed for home along a roundabout route. Total of 9.6 miles in 1:14 and a decent run despite the lazy feeling at the start.

Today, Thursday's words for the day were 'slow and tired' and 'lethargic' and took it real easy at a recovery pace run by keeping the heartrate below 135 or 80% of max. It was actually kind of nice to run that slow making the run more bearable once under way and it's a good idea to take some of the same advice that I've given Thomas to heart. Overall of 7 miles at 8:12/mi pace.

Perhaps it's time for a little break and the running adventure coming up this weekend should be just the ticket. I can't wait for all the excitement and fun of running with a team who's main motto is to have fun. I'll have a bunch of pictures and a full report as soon as I can.

Have a great weekend!

Ha en viktig helg!