Pooped

All the mileage and concerts have done me in.  I am officially pooped.  Luckily I have a little bit of a break in my concert/recital/performance schedule so I can focus on rest and some pace work before Moab in less than 2 weeks.  I pounded out 42 miles this week with some good speed intervals and some pace work.

Friday brought us a blizzard.....25 mph winds minimum with blowing snow.  Not running weather considering there was a good 3 inches of snow on the ground, plus the piles of it swirling everywhere.  I decided to postpone my scheduled run and do it on Saturday.  (Saturday is my rest day for my Sunday long run).  Ah well.    Good news was Wordquota had a scheduled massage with my therapist and couldn't take it, so I got to.  For those of you that remember my post about my IT band bumps.....turns out they're not fascia or muscle or anything like that....they are FAT!!!!!  Gross.  Apparently my body can't store it anywhere else so it's going there.

Saturday's run (that was supposed to be Friday) was 1 mile easy, 2 x 15 minutes at half-marathon pace with 2 minutes active recovery in between, then 1 mile easy.  I held my half-marathon goal pace but had to push really hard to hang on.  If I backed off just a little to settle into my comfortable stride, I was about 20 seconds too slow per mile so I had to keep checking the Garmin to make sure I was staying on. Got home and had to have a quick breakfast, shower and dress clothes.  Had a wedding to play at 11am.  Then I had the afternoon to rest and then a concert at 7pm.  I wore heels for the wedding and the concert....I think it was a bad idea as my calves were seriously sore from pushing through the 6 miles combined with the high heels.

Got up Sunday morning to my calves feeling VERY spent.  Had 16 miles with a progression at the end on the training program.  Off I went.  I managed 15 with the progression...I just didn't calculate the mileage very well before heading out.  Two great moments on the run....First, I stopped to pee on a hillside next to the river and as I squatted I look up and a bald eagle is directly overhead, not very high up.  My jaw dropped.  Totally cool!  Second, my favorite pathway that I have ALWAYS wanted to run...it's about 5 miles from my house and on Main St. so I don't run there because of all the traffic but have eyed the sidewalk MANY times.  (I guess I could just park at the mall and run the 200 feet of sidewalk any old day but that just wouldn't seem right). Today I ran it twice.

See how it curves...I don't know what the big deal is...it's just a curvy sidewalk...