Soooooo tired, but feeling amazing!!!

Whew!  A second hard week of training is in the books!  I got in some amazing training and learned so much about what I'm capable (and not) of, where some of my boundaries are, and how to plan out the next nine weeks before the 50K Olympic Trials. 

One of the things I love about coming to train with Ian is his great knowledge base.  We have such great conversations about training ideologies, ideas, and concepts.  And he's got a reference for just about anything.  I leave feeling like I've learned a lot and extra motivated to get out and train. 

Since the first week I did such high mileage I started week two a bit on the tired side, but ready to give it what I had.  Where my 10x1K speed session went amazing two weeks ago, this last week it was a little rough.  My legs were tired and heavy.  I pushed as much as I could, and never gave up, but times were getting slower and slower.   The good thing was my technique still looked pretty good.  Ended up a lot of it was low blood sugar, and after a really good lunch my afternoon speed session of 10x400 went much better.  I had pep back in my step. 

Thursday's long one was good, until about 25K.  Then we both kind of hit the wall.  30K was good for the day.  But again, after a good meal and a massage I went out for a solid 8K in the evening.

Saturday was a great day.  We did our Saturday road race, a Santa run.  Almost everyone was dressed up, except me.  Then I realized, that since I was dressed all in black, I was the lump of coal!  the race was quite hilly, the last two K especially.  I did a 24:34, and was quite pleased with that on tired legs.  My afternoon workout was 30x30/30 which is 30 minutes of 30 seconds all out and 30 seconds recovery.  I hit my 5K split in 24:50.   A really, really solid day. 

However I was to pay the price on Sunday for the 40K workout.  I knew I was tired and it wasn't going to be my fastest workout, so I decided to not look at the splits.  I went decent through about 22K and then, poof, nothing left in the tank.  My legs would not go.  I wasn't low on sugar, my legs were just dead.  I still had to get back to the car.  It took me 80 minutes to cover the last 10K back to the car.  Luckily it was a beautiful day with wonderful scenery.  I'm not sure my body has ever been as tired and sore as it was last night.  Even after a massage I was moving around like an invalid.  A good night's sleep, a REALLY easy walk today, and I should be good for my last hard day in South Carolina.  I'm doing my third 10x1K in the AM and 10x400 in the PM session.  The rest of the week will be traveling home (hazzah!!!!) and getting ready for USATF indoor 5,000 national championships.  My plan is to continue on to 10,000 and see where I'm at.  All my athletes are racing and I'm really excited to see how everyone does.   There have been some amazing workouts happening and a whole lot of hard work going around.  Makes me really, really proud. 

So learning has happened, schedules adjusted, plans made, goals getting ready to be met.   Looking forward to going home, seeing my sweetie, taking some nice hot baths, and some of Dave's yummy popcorn.  Then off to St. George, Utah for final training before the Trials!