A *little* worse for wear

Joseph commented, "Don't know if I'd go to that well too often, but if you're no worse for wear, than I'd say a long overdistance run can help..."

Well, I'm a little worse for wear. I had some weird sensation in my hamstring tendon (the one behind the medial side of my right knee) going into the 8k. Didn't bother me at all during the race and I felt it just a little bit the rest of the week. It flared up about mile 25 of my run on Sunday and I could feel it some on a 6 miler yesterday morning. I didn't feel it a bit on the 10-miler home from work tonight until about mile 8.5 when it flared up again. I think it will go away again over the week.

The 32:45 8k convinced me that I have enough speed if I can just keep from fading. I think the speed work I need now is shoving less food in my mouth. I'm still working on getting that "I can run forever" feeling and I think Sunday was a step in that direction (if this niggle goes away!).

On the overdistance running, I have no scientific proof of anything, but I do feel like I need to get that "tired purely from the distance" feeling in order to stretch my ability in that direction. A friend of mine ran 2:48 on sunday long runs increasing up to 30 miles and 4 40-45 minutes during the week. Doesn't that make you sick? Of course he probably could have run faster with more training during the week, but I do think the first job in the marathon is to be able to handle the distance. Thinking it over though back-to-back long runs might do me just as well without as much injury risk -- something like 10-13 on Sat and 20 on Sunday. Well, I've run 27 miles now.

On today's run, I have to say I love running home from work. Just get up from your desk and literally run away from work. Take that!