restoration

I've been feeling drained for a while. a few weeks?

Yesterday, Gaz and I ran for a while, but not a long while. My total mileage ended up being about 15 miles. Our energy levels were fortunately similar. walk? sure! Stop to eat something at the farmers' market? sure! We even met another friend and ran with her for awhile...it almost seems like we did everything but run.

I had sore guts, but in a muscular way, not digestive. I suspect my fuel belt interferes with my revamped core. At any rate, I enjoyed all the peripheral benefits, good conversation, snacks, lovely fall weather, etc, but the running itself felt too hard and yet too mild to be of any use.

HOWEVER, this morning, I ran with the dog and felt like a million bucks. I hadn't slept enough again (six hours, and the night before was three, due to social stuff), and I was going to do a couple of miles by the Canal but this bored me. So we headed down to the river and I loosened up and felt really light. We even sprinted up and down a few steep hill portions. It's been a while since I've done steep hill sprints and I was much more aware of my core. I kept it tight and it drove everything else. Before, i'd feel my quads and shoulders more. And then I did resistance exercises, a bodyrock routine that I'd done twice before, which further pushed things into a familiar and competent groove. It was not easy, but I felt like I wasn't merely pushing against fatigue, but toward gains.

In short, the long run on Sunday was the exact restorative thing that I've been requiring these past few weeks. I've broken slumps with extra long and easy runs before, but I'd forgotten about this. And apparently Lydiard (someone who's written a lot about long-distance running) advocated long easy runs as a cure for tired legs and general fatigue. This is second-hand knowledge and maybe I've misconstrued it, but the basic observation seems the same.