Bruiser Eve

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's Bradbury Bruiser 12-Mile Trail Race. I'm also really thankful I was able to pull things together in the past week so I'd be pretty ready for it. One week ago from today I was hobbling around a XC course in order to root and give instructions to the runners on our team. My knee felt sprained and I had wondered if it was something serious.

Fortunately, a week later and any discomfort is gone. I have pretty much forgotten about it until now. I think it was just a sprain and not IT-band related. But with that issue along with feeling run down as a result of overtraining, I took it really easy this week. Patting myself on the back a bit for not pushing it and sticking with the plan.

Last year, I felt the shorter races worked in well with my training schedule leading up to the MDI Marathon. I didn't do any other big races last summer, so the shorter races here and there were great speed workouts. But with this cycle, with three marathons or ultras (26.2M, 50M, 50K respectively) since April along with a good handful of other shorter races, it's been quite a bit for somewhat like me and I can't say I feel 100% fresh at this point. Just not much time to recover from anything and it's been a roller coaster of running hard at races, try to recover, repeat.. and all in a pretty short span.

Tomorrow will be a good test of where I'm at in that sense. But I've already pretty much decided that as much as I love racing I think doing half of what I did race wise this spring and summer would be more prudent. I'd prefer to spend more time training and not wonder if I'm recovered enough from each race. Though it's been fun, chain racing just isn't for me.

As for today's run, I did a short but hilly mix of pavement, dirt roads and trails. Kept the pace easy and felt pretty good overall. Went well. Glad dryer air has moved in, it was really nice outside. Now, time to devour a salad...

Ran 5.1 miles @ 8:36/mile pace.
Paved roads, dirt roads, trails.
Very hilly.
Around 70 degrees, sunny.
Brooks Mach 13, shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap.