Sat 8/7 - double, 90 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden, incl. 5m road race

AM - Sandown road race. Did enough to win, took more than expected and I don't know how much faster I could have gone. First mile of the race was controlled, had more company than expected. It would appear the time spent at altitude recently was key, as I established a 10 second or so gap by 3 miles using the uphill sections and then held on to it from there. The uphill fourth mile was not so fun, hoping to be able to coast in on the last downhill mile but had to do work until the last 200m or so to ensure the win. That wasn't so fun, leg starting to lock up on the downhills (more on that below). Splits of 5:22, 5:08, 5:19, 5:53, 5:13. Conditions pretty much perfect for this time of year.

The most salient aspect of the race was how badly the left adductor locked up immediately after finishing. Didn't notice it so much during the race, focused on the effort and all, although in hindsight it was starting to get sore the second half of the race. The adductor got tighter and tighter after finishing, to where I could barely move 10 minutes later. Spent the next half hour with a lacrosse ball trying to work out the spasm which of course was in the worst most inaccessible spot. Eventually tried a cooldown and could barely move on it, more of a limping crawl. Difficult to express how surprising the acuteness of the aggravation is, esp. in light of the leg feeling better yesterday after stretching. It all goes back to the original aggravation/injury in January running on the slippery roads in Newton, but hadn't been bothering me of late. Noticed some stiffness last week after running in Waldo Canyon. Could have been from the descent of Longs Peak, the lack of stretching last week, or all of these. Whatever the case, the area is a mess again.

PM - 30 minutes very very easy plus 20 minutes in Walden. Desperate to get in the water to get the range of motion going in my left hip, the problem was getting to and from the pond. Unable to run in any recognizable form, had to stop twice on the way out to do direct pressure on the afflicted area. The water running helped it feel better somewhat, but still not really ready to run on it for the trip back to the car. Adductor, iliopsoas, TFL are all very sore and tender right now.