A Running Sabbatical but Motivation Still Down

After the 25K I took a running sabbatical. Three solid days of morning rain was all I needed to sleep in. After a few days rest, I was hoping my left leg would be fine and I could get after the rest of the training schedule. The leg is better but I still get occasional reminders something might be wrong. I don't know if it's just psychological, but it's ruined my motivation. I had a couple good runs in the cool weather last week but I'm missing something. I stall before going out on weekend runs. The motivation just isn't there.

25K Race

I must admit I was pretty disappointed with my performance. The temperature was cool, the air was dry, there was only a light East wind. I honestly expected to run this race near 6:20 pace. But I didn't.

Congratulations to my age group rival RobW who ended up with first place in the AG! Rob and I both lived on the fifth floor at Rice's Sid Richardson College way back in 1978-1979. It's great to see another Sid Rich person taking the hardware.

Here are the splits:
1 - 6:20, 149 bpm
2 - 6:23, 12:43, 159 bpm
3 - 6:28, 19:11, 162 bpm
4 - 6:01, 25:12, 162 bpm this mile was short
5 - 7:02, 32:15, 161 bpm
6 - 6:30, 38:45, 159 bpm
7 - 6:22, 45:07, 162 bpm
8 - 6:35, 51:42, 162 bpm
9 - 6:43, 58:25, 162 bpm
10 - 6:55, 1:05:21, 160 bpm
11 - 6:54, 1:12:16, 158 bpm
12/13 - 13:37, 1:25:53, 158 bpm
14 - 7:05, 1:32:58, 157 bpm
15 - 7:12, 1:40:10, 159 bpm
15.53 - 3:43, 1:43:53, 161 bpm

I'm seriously considering taking a few days off from running. My left knee is still giving me problems.

Here's AdrienneL whizzing by me at the start of the third loop:

Photo by S.Walk

Warning Signs: Week 7

78¼ miles for the week (October 27th to November 2nd)

M (1) – 8 miles recovery run, average pace 8:30 mpm, sunny and windy 66°F at 2PM, waiting to go to work for the final refueling outage inspections [SeaC/SSTrail-1M/SeaC]
M (2) – 4½ miles recovery run, average pace 8:53 mpm, 63°F at 6PM, still waiting to go to work [FlagR-P-P/Ol]
Tu – missed a scheduled 11 mile run with 5 miles at LT, was woken by a call to go to work and didn’t make it home until nearly midnight, 47°F at 4AM
W AM - 10 miles general aerobic, average pace 7:03 mpm, a nice and cool 47°F at 6:30AM, slept in a little and went to work at 10AM [SeaC/Dow/MacLSSTrail/SeaC]
W PM – 7 miles on the track, average pace 6:33 mpm, with 5 miles at LT - average pace 6:15 mpm, 65°F at 7PM [B’Wood track]
Th – 6¼ miles recovery run, average pace 8:25 mpm, 66°F at 4AM [Dow/BS/Ol]
F - 15 miles medium long run, average pace 7:26 mpm, 76°F from 11AM [SeaC/SSTrail-4x2M/SeaC]
Sa – 5¾ miles recovery run, average pace 8:06 mpm, 65°F at 5AM, had to work on this Saturday [Dow/BS]
Su – 21¾ miles, average pace 7:31 mpm, 74°F to 76°F starting at 9AM, [Oak-OCD-Soaks-BCC-Oak//SeaC/SSTrail-2M1M/SeaC]

This was another busy week at the power plant. Tuesday was my first zero mileage day since Hurricane Ike. I was able to run the tempo run Wednesday evening on the track and was very happy with the results. I felt very much in control, finishing the full five miles at LT with a 6:08 mile and feeling as though I could easily run a couple more at that pace. But on Friday I started getting a worrisome "niggle" from my left knee. Once every mile or so I'd get a strange feeling just after toe-off. The problem recurred during Sunday's long run. This has been a pretty fast buildup since Hurricane Ike. I really hope I haven't done too much too soon.

The weather looks decent for the 25K race. I'd really like to hammer this race, but I'm also concerned about aggaravating the left knee.