Tuesday for the Trotting Turtle

Since I did my long run on Sunday, my training schedule for the week has been pushed forward a day. So today was 3 miles.

The first mile was a bit rough only because my calves were *so* tight. There was only a touch of pain in my shins from the 'itis', so I am really excited about that. I think I have made some great progress here and am definitely on the mend.

I had to stop about 5 times during the first mile or so to stretch out my calves. I think part of this problem is that I am literally getting out of bed, stretching a bit and hitting the road. If I had a few hours to let my legs wake up, this might not be a problem. But, because of our schedules here, I have to get up and get it done early. Anyway, once I hit 1.5 miles, things seemed much better and I trotted along.

Temps were 47 although it felt much cooler when I got started. I wore my hat and gloves and definitely needed them.

My total time was 43:14 which averages to a 14:19 minute mile. So, I'm thinking that perhaps if I had not needed to stop and stretch, my time could have been 14:00???? Or maybe better????? I did push it a bit faster this morning. I read somewhere that "if you want to run faster, you have to run faster." Hmmm. An obvious thought, but maybe I had not thought about it exactly like that.

On another note, I read yesterday that the world record holder for the marathon will probably skip the Olympics in Beijing because of the poor air quality. Read all about it here. His agent said "racers who have performed in damaging conditions have never returned to their best." His current record is 2:46:26. That's 26.2 MILES in 2 HOURS and 46 MINUTES (and of course 26 seconds). And to think I ran 8 miles in just under 2 hours on Sunday.... Maybe I should delete the paragraph above where I was thinking I was running faster. On second thought, maybe it's the pollution here in Memphis that is slowing me down.