5 miles in 38:02 at 1% – surprised run was that fast – gait was off when I tried to really push – was almost like a limp run – strange

I wasn’t sure when I started the run how it was going to go.  It was scheduled as a speed training run but my thighs felt quite tight after the 20 miler on Sunday.  I was tempted to just take it easy but with Goofy Challenge just over 4 weeks away I knew I had to push if I could make it work.

The first 4-5 minutes were pretty rough – I couldn’t sustain a higher speed for longer than 20-30 seconds before my right hip would feel too tight and I would almost be limping while I was running.  It was very strange but I figured I might be able to fix it if I could keep going and stretch it out.  So I stuck at around 7.3 mph for several minutes and then started trying the higher speeds again.  I could handle 9 mph for a 1 minute stretch before the hit would start to hurt again and I would have to back off.  Decided to go with that then – 1 minute at 7.5 mph followed by 1 minute at 9 mph, then repeat.  Ended up with a total of 2 minutes of walking and 2 stretches where I kept the 9 mph up for 2 minutes before dropping back to 7.5.

In the end things felt good but I can tell I am not in the shape I was in near the end of October.  I don’t know if I can recover before the Goofy Challenge but if I can keep the intensity up I think I have a shot to get back to where I was.  This means a new marathon PR is still very possible (4:15:01 – from 2005) and a sub 4 hour is still on the table.

One thing I do need to do though is get my weight and diet under control – I had a bit of a bump back up over 220 with the missed runs and reduced intensity with the loss of the treadmill and the weather knocking me back.  I keep hovering around the 220 point but with the trend I was on back in October and early November I should be around 210 right now.  Part of the issue is we have been pretty busy lately with all the holiday stuff with work and the kids eating into our time and we haven’t been keeping up on having good fresh groceries available for me to stay on track.  I have been eating way too many carbs instead of protein lately and I have to get that back on track.  Basically 2 solid weeks from now until Christmas and I need to have this reversed and back on track by then at the latest.

Hmmm just realized that I start tapering the day before Christmas – that will be nice to be able to relax a bit over the holidays!