More of the same

My sister's little dog, also known as Binx who makes both a good lap dog but also has very sharp ears and works a 2nd job as an alarm clock and watch dog.
These deer (7 in a row) wandered through our back yard last night taking their good old time and waiting their turn to use Jo's well maintained garden path. They then jumped the fence and had a little party in our enclosed yard (former dog run area) before being shooed off by me in my slippers.

Besides all the animal activity things have been fairly quiet around here lately. The weather has been half decent, warmer for a few days (above 0C) and then on the cool side but no winter storms to add to the accumulation of snow and ice on the roads. This has been a scheduled recovery week but so far it hasn't felt much like that as the effects of the hard marathon pace run on Sunday lingered into the midweek. Instead of feeling easy and refreshed the feeling is more like tired and worn down...

Monday - rest day, ahhh, a bit tired and slightly sore

Tues - 10 miles in 1:24 in the nice mild temperature of +4C. The heartrate was a little elevated and the legs were feeling tired and lazy. I probably should have broken this run into 2 shorter runs but the plan said... x so I did x.

Weds - still feeling low so I switched workouts around and did just an easy 6 today at an easy 8:30 pace and lower hr of 130. The right hammie was tight and sore so I gave it extra attention during my post run stretching. That night I also took in 2 hours of volleyball and we had fun winning the 1st and last games while playing 4 on 5 (sorry Thomas but a man's gotta do what he has to do).

Thurs - 9 miles with 6x600m at 5k effort said 'the plan', yuck said I. After a 3k warmup I attempted to run this on the roads during an out and back run. After determining that my 5k pace for 600m should be about 2:24, the only other variable was the rest interval and I decided to go with a distance of 400m instead of time so each interval started at the kilometer mark. It's always easier said than done as I could only 'hit' my theoretical time on 3 out of the 6 attempts. I'll blame the failures on the hills, wind and -8C temps. Decent run but not up to par.

Fri - 11 miles in 1:34. Guess who was tired and lethargic today? wonder why... Light winds, temps -5C, on slow tight legs once again. It was one of those put your head down and run sort of days that your glad just to finish. There were one or two brights spots as the sun was out for awhile and my stride actually smoothed out a bit after 4-5 miles, but only for a bit. The sun then went back behind the clouds and the hammie tightened up to finish the run.

Tonite, relaxing on the couch and then on the floor doing some extra stretching while watching a few sports programs. I've got a short easy 7-8 miler planned for the morning to top off the week at 59 miles. And then I'll be taking it easy again as I rest up for Sunday's long run with Andrew around Boyden Lake once again. Have a great weekend!