Recovery

The legs were still quite fatigued come Saturday - I could still feel soreness in the quads when going up stairs.  My easy 5-miler wound up feeling more like a shuffle, but I still managed to finish up w/ a sub-7:30 pace for the effort.  The good news; the average HR was just 141 which I believe is a record low for me.  

Saturday evening I felt a bit of discomfort on the inside of my right knee.  Nothing serious, but a notch above the standard nicks you typically get from running.  Coach and I had decided earlier for me to take another down week here as the past 2-weeks have been great, but also quite a bit more work both in terms of quality efforts and overall pace than previous weeks.  

Originally the plan was to do the usual long run on Sunday and then start the down week on Monday, but w/ the knee flare up I decided to bag the run on Sunday, and use it as an additional off day to get an early start on the down week.  I later realized that the muscles on the inside of my right quad are more sore and tight than the others, which is probably causing the knee discomfort.  

So yesterday was a complete off day.  Ice, ibuprofen, rolling, stretching and rest has my knee feeling about 80% better today, but the muscle is still a little sore.  Another off day today, and a day at the gym tomorrow w/ some cross training on either the elliptical or the bike (no running) will give me 3 straight off days from running and that should do the trick.  

I really came off of the last down week feeling absolutely fantastic and this time the only difference in how the down week is constructed is the extra off day I took on Sunday - everything else will be very similar.  (Mon - off, Tue - gym (no running), Wed - easy, Thurs - Threshold, Friday - easy, Saturday - easy, Sunday - progressive)

Coach has really helped me the past few weeks.  When the week after the race went so well, she was already talking about a down week here.  I was thinking "down week after just 2-weeks of training?"  I had about 8-weeks prior to the last down week, why would I need one after just 2-weeks?  But as this second week began to unfold I started to feel more fatigued, and by the time I finished that hill workout on Friday I couldn't wait for the down week to get here.  The truth is that although the efforts of the easy days still feel the same, they're considerably faster than they were before and she said my body would need some extra time to adjust.  Well, she was certainly right about that!  

If all goes well, the following week I'll be back on the horse so to speak w/ a threshold day, hills, and a long day on the schedule.  

Training:

Sat, 9/25:  5-miles @ 7:28 pace  HR-141

Sun, 9/26:  Off  (unscheduled - soreness on inside of right knee)  stretching, rolling, ice.

Mon, 9/27:  Off  (scheduled) stretching, rolling.