Is anyone else feeling a little beat up from last weekend’s Hood to coast adventure?

Note to self for Napa’s Ragnar Relay in September: Try to temper that adrenaline rush!

Here’s what was on deck for the week:

Aside from feeling tired overall, I’m also nursing a tweaked calf because — despite my best attempts at stretching between legs and using some massage tools in the van — it was nearly impossible to stay limber when alternating racing with being cramped in close quarters for 30-odd hours.

So my body was definitely telling me to back off this week, and I tried my best to listen while maintaining my training schedule. Case in point: Check out these stats from my tempo run last week.

And this week’s run, exactly seven days later — same route, same time of day, same feeling of exertion, only it’s 20+ seconds slower per mile. Ouch. And this is after a massage and an appointment with a trainer to work on some stretching and strengthening exercises for my lower legs.

But I can’t feel too discouraged; Tuesday’s track workout went well, and I nailed my paces.

Speed work is officially over, and now we’re moving into the strength portion of the training program. This means I’ll be doing longer repeats, but they’ll be closer to goal marathon pace — just 10 seconds faster, in fact.

I thought this shot was particularly appropriate for how it felt to be running another workout of almost eight miles around the track, though: infinitely endless!

The plan, going forward? Rest more, focus on recovery, be consistent with my daily stretching and strengthening exercises…and try to get that calf feeling happy again.

Onward to week 12! Thanks for following along 🙂