Two Poor Long Runs

My long runs haven't been going well since pushing the distance after my calf injury in early April.

Nearly 4 weeks ago, I had a very weird long run as I was building back distance AND I had just had a colonoscopy... like 3 hours before my run. It was 10 miles total with 4 hard miles in the middle at 6:31 pace. Yikes. Super short and slow for me.

Nearly 3 weeks ago, I had a pretty normal long run! It still wasn't fast being it was 11 mile total with the middle 6 hard miles at 6:16 pace. That's not "fast," but it's a pretty standard long run. I was feeling good about that, honestly!

But then the last 2 have been rotten. Almost 2 weeks ago, I ran 11.2 miles with the middle 6 hard miles at 6:24 pace. Yikes. Not great. And for no reason.

And earlier this week, I did 11.2 miles with the middle 6 hard miles at 6:25 pace. I was just unable to find another gear. I maybe had a slight excuse this past week because the air was THICK: it was cool, but also humid and foggy in spots:

View of the Mississippi River once I got there


Noticing the fog cutting off the bottom of the downtown MPLS skyline in the distance.


A few "thick" areas during my run.


Fogged up glasses and nasty hair from the thick air after finishing those middle "hard" miles.

So I'm feeling pretty cruddy about those long runs. I had that glute pain in January that I was just feeling like I was over (meaning the pain was gone AND I was feeling like I had worked my speed mostly back), but then I was side-tracked again in early April. And I'm VERY CLEARLY not "back to normal" after that yet. And summer racing season is now upon us. Oh well... no fast races this summer! That's OK. Just glad I'm still kickin'.