Run To Work Day

Morning Leg: 12.55 Miles in 1:39.10, 7:54 pace
Afternoon Leg: 12.59 Miles in 1:37.17, 7:43 pace
Total: 25.14 Miles in 3 hours 16 minutes and 27 seconds, 7:48 pace

A run to and from work has been on my radar for some time now. Always figured it was a marathon distance round trip and could easily be done mid week at a comfortable pace. Down side was who the hell wants to run thru the DTC? Regardless, a few weeks back I pegged today as the day to do it. Work and weather have played havoc with my training schedule as of late so was really curious to see how my body would respond by taking on my 2nd 20+ miler in 4 days.

Morning Session: This morning started out early! Out the door by 5am. The pace started out slow, 8 plus minute pace, and I let the body figure it out over the first few miles and before I knew I was cruising along at a very comfortable pace. At times I had to check myself speed wise. The roads were quite, the sunrise amazing and before I knew it, I was just a mile plus away from the office and turning it down a notch. Got to the office feeling great. Not winded, not tired, just fresh. I was extremely happy with how the morning run went. Honestly could not have gone better considering a return trip was still on the plate.

Work Day: Then it happened. A long work day of sitting around at my cube, in meetings, with the boss. I could just feel it as the day went by that my legs were starting to tighten up. Nothing major but enough to be concerned about with 12+ miles left to run. Tried stretching out the legs, taking in lots of liquids, carbs, electrolytes and doing whatever I needed to do to prevent them from crapping out on me.

Afternoon Session: Started this session at 4:40pm and it was warm out there. And warm early spring days equal wind. A stiff wind at that blowing in from the west with gusts reported in the 35mph range. Running any route west straight sucked and chunks of my run were due west. With all that said, I kept up a pretty good pace early on. Faster then I wanted to run. 7:20 pace. Legs were feeling it too. Muscle fatigue was never an issue but the on going bursa sack and runners knee were not liking me by this point. Got to about 3 miles from home and just down shifted to a pedestrian 8+ minute pace. Figured there was no need to push it by this point. Got home tired but satisfied with what I had just accomplished.

Aftermath: Laying around the house, I can tell a few things. 1) My nagging issues will be extremely obvious the next day or two. 2) Muscle fatigue will be nonexistent. A mix reaction to this obviously. So close to be 100% yet so far from it.