That felt tough

...and slow....for a supposed tempo run.

Raced an 8km on Sunday as a tempo run, but it still felt terrible. My hips have been bugging me all week and my legs seemed beaten up after Tuesday's track session (much more than the ease of the workout itself).

My Wed run was not good, and I felt flat on my Thurs hill session, but I was back in the groove on Fri and maybe that was the problem. I think my Fri and Sat runs may been a bit quick.

I knew when I ran up a hill to my car to put my racing flats on that it was going to be a 'grinder' sort of day. I felt that based upon my recent tempos and Tues sessions that I could go in the 3:10/km range for the 8km. The previous week I had run below threshold and hit 3:15 km's. But alas everything felt tight. I went out around 3:10 pace and felt okay, but also knew I wasn't smooth and could feel myself getting tight. I ran a decent 7km, almost went after Ollie Utting and then jogged in the last km (I was 5 sec behind Ollie at 7km and ended up around 20 back at the finish) in 26something.

I feel as though I am much better shape than that for a tempo pace, but I also know how sluggish I felt before and how tight my hamstrings were after. The legs were fine, but my hamstrings were so tight that it felt like someone had been playing music on them.

The only good news was I was able to stay ahead of Norm Tinkham and claim the masters prize givings, which was really my first goal. Normally, I would never race at this sort of competitive event (Jon Brown won) without being prepared to race, but it's hard to pass up a few hundred dollars to do a workout.

The Week:
Mon: afternoon 54 mins PM 31 mins
Tues: 5 x 1600m off 2 + mins rest avg'd 4:49s, but ran them by going out slow and then closing in low 70 and high 60s for the last 2 laps.
Wed: 86 mins
Thurs: 3 mins short hill (20 sec), 20 min 45 sec hill, 3 mins short hill.
Fri: 10+ miles in 62 mins...yeah maybe this might explain my fatigue
Saturday: 30mins (as it turned out fast, but i had no idea at the time) PM 44 mins
Sunday: 8km 26.0?