Thu 9/10 - PM 50 minutes easy

Area 51. Cut the length of the run a bit short, in deference to feeling like crap and in the vain hope that it would help me get to bed earlier. My current schedule is quite simply untenable when it comes to fitting everything in, and I don't know how I did it in the past. Right hammie continues to feel ominous at best. Did a few pickups near the end which felt reasonably decent but the aftermath was predictable with calf and hamstring starting to shrivel up within moments of the run ending.

Wed 10/9 - off

Quite the no-brainer given how fried and stale I've been feeling of late. Condition of the right thigh/butt is worrisome, calf as well. Rolled out the calf with the lax ball which felt like it helped some, hopefully.

Tue 10/8 - PM 55 minutes incl. 3k-2k-1k

A resounding dud of a workout. Far too fried to pull off the originally planned session of 3k-2k-3k-2k, something I realized about 2/3 of the way through the 3k. While pulling the plug entirely might have been the best option at that point, instead I did a little editing in medias res and went with a cutdown instead. Alas, there was no cutdown in the pace to speak of, as 85 second pace was the Rubicon in terms of avoiding complete and utter failure. That alone is evidence of how unprepared/unable I was to pull off any kind of workout. In addition to the fatigue the right leg is officially a mess, still torqued up from last week and more specifically the long workout from last Wednesday. This made the pace far too difficult for what it was and led to feeling discouraged in no time. Splits:

3:32.8/3:28.7/3:29.9 - 10:31.4
3R
3:32.0/3:32.6 - 7:04.6
2R
3:29.4

Lackluster only begins to describe this mess. To top it all off, the residual stiffness in the hammie and glute along with being wound up from working too hard made it near impossible to get to sleep afterward, thus contributing further to the fucking hole I'm in rest-wise. Lovely.

Mon 10/7 - PM 65 minutes easy

Area 51. I had planned on joining the kiddies for a run along the aqueduct or anywhere else and thus get the run in early, but no such luck. Nodding off at the wheel on the ride home, necessitating a short nap before heading out the door. Hammie and calf not feeling so great, hopefully just DOMS from Saturday but the leg feels wound awful tight. The lack of stretching of late does nothing to help this. Very warm and very windy all afternoon, with some serious weather happening further west. No rednecks on ATVs in the refuge this evening thankfully.

Sun 10/6 - PM 75 minutes easy

Area 51. Easy shakeout after another car ride home from NH. Feeling a bit pooped, unsurprisingly, and also feeling the lack of a decent cooldown yesterday as legs were more stiff than they should have been. Rained much of the day, showers more on than off, which left things dank and not quite mild enough for shorts, but maybe too warm for pants. Less than ideal conditions in other words.

Sat 10/5 - AM 50 minutes incl. 5k road race

Not feeling at all chipper during the warmup for this latest stop in the charity 5k tour. Much more tired and strung out than I had hoped. On top of that the right hammie/piriformis mess was feeling quite stuck to the point that I was rolling on the lax ball in the parking lot 20 minutes before the gun went off. This helped at least temporarily as I was able to get through the race without any lockups there. Spent almost the entire race in second place, with a 12 year old girl leading us out the first 100m or so before the eventual winner took over. Course was mostly quite flat, with enough turns that I tried doing a couple of blind corner surges to gain separation from the guy behind me. Probably would have been better off keeping a steady pace as this seemed to tire me out more than anything else. Thankfully I was able to spend the final km playing keep away, and tapered down to a controlled deceleration the last 400m or so. Didn't use the watch, and in hindsight it the mile and 2 mile splits couldn't have been accurate as they were in the same spot for an out and back course. As such, ran blind in terms of pace but not at all surprised to see the final time as I reached the finish. Given how flat I felt warming up the time is a mildly positive surprise in fact. I had hoped to do a cooldown on the dirt roads near the course but scheduling of awards and post-race feed made it impossible.