Land of Hurt

To the track! I opted out of the premier road race in our area this morning. The St. Johns Sunshine run. I've ran that puppy off and on since the mid-eighties but my MP run was more important. A beautiful morning with sunny skies, and occasional cloud, good breeze from the North, and cool, cool temps-38! Shorts, long sleeve shirt, hat and gloves. I had decided to slow the pace and try to really establish a true MP. My body was so sore and stiff, this has been a challenging week, dealing with fatigue. As I started the workout I could see this was going to be a test! Started in lane eight and began to knock off laps. Lots of activity on the track. Novice runners, walkers, kids, it was a pretty busy place but not a problem.
At around mile nine I began to hurt. The kind of hurt you experience when your glycogen stores are getting low, when your legs are heavy and feel like concrete, like around mile 20 in the marathon. I just talked to myself saying " Mark, don't let up, hold the pace," etc...
Seemed like I held on okay but when I finished my quads were toasted. So it's in the books!
Totals-14.06 miles/ 2:07:31/ 9:04's. Here are the splits-9:49, 9:13, 8:55, 8:55, 8:49, 8:40, 8:44, 8:42, 8:41, 9:06, 9:27, 9:24, 9:02, 9:22. ( Got my 50 in!) I think this was a good effort for the fact that I was in the land of hurt for around five miles. My next run will be in California! We are staying at the La Quinta in Carlsbad and I hope to run from there Monday morning sometime. Otherwise next week is gonna be a booger getting miles in because of the conference but it'll all work out. Peace!
Good luck again to all racing today and tomorrow!!