Ouch

Ok, my muscles are screaming at me. I did a 4 mile Tempo run on Tuesday and then went to circuit training class where she decided it was a good day to work our leg muscles. But, in spite of the fact that my thigh muscles hurt with every breath I took, I went out Wednesday for a 6 mile Tempo run. Now, Dale would have me explain that a Tempo run is a run at near my marathon race pace. I've sort of upped the ante by basing my training program on a 4 and a half hour marathon. I'm finding it difficult to keep up the Tempo pace for the whole 4 miles (never mind the 6 miles). But, in my defense, we do have a lot of hills in Gibsons. I would find it easier to keep the pace on a flat surface. However, the marathon in Athens has about 13 miles uphill in the middle of the run so I best just get used to hill. Train for your race.

After all that, 2 Tempo runs in a row, today was suppose to be my easy run day of 5 miles. Because it was an EASY day, I decided on a route that had some more hills than my Tempo route. This was fine except that the extra hill was at the beginning of the run and by mile 2.32 (according to the GPS on my phone) I was quite tired and, facing a long slow incline, couldn't seem to keep the pace up. Every 5 minutes my program chimes in with my mileage, time and pace. I was starting to get really discourage after about 45 minutes when I thought I just couldn't finish another mile and a half. I clued in to the fact that the GPS wasn't working properly when I heard for the third time that I had gone 4.19 miles. I finally stopped and did a slow jog home. I checked the computer and rerouted the map to my actual run and turns out that I did 5.95 miles. At TEMPO pace! No wonder it was so hard. That program I have is wonderful - when it works. That also explains why I barely made it through my circuit training class afterwards. This must be getting me in great shape, right?

Wahoo. Tomorrow is a rest day!! I have to do my long run on Saturday because I'm helping out at the drag races most of Sunday. I'm scheduled to do 13 miles - that's half a marathon. I think it will be a tough one but we'll see.