What The?

Things are sort of going "well", but are at the same time nondescript. On the running front I am having real trouble at the moment getting up in the morning to run before work. My feeling is that it mostly has to do with the fact that the temperatures are dropping (+1.5C this morning, for example) and that it is dark even when I return home shortly before 7am. Bummer, but I am continually surprised at just how many stars I can see in the sky at this time of year and have taken comfort in identifying some basic constellations while out and about.

I tend to sent my alarm at around 5:35am, lay there for a while with the typical "should I get up and go out now or stay in bed and make up for the missed run this evening" argument running through my head. Invariable I choose the former and drag my old carcass out of bed just in time to run a short 5-6k all the while thinking that running that little is mostly a waste of time.

(Case in point, on Tuesday I managed 5k, Wednesday it was 6.2k, and this morning just 6k. Clearly things are not improving as far as mileage goes.)

All that being said, I am concentrating more on my strength training and, as a result, my legs are sore. Yesterday afternoon I did more lunges, deadlifts, adductors, and abductors. This morning my ass muscles hurt and it definitely affected my run. The ITB in my right leg was screaming for relief about 3k into my run and I had to stop and stretch for a couple of minutes before continuing on.

I guess I'm willing to give up mileage in the short term for the sake of improving my overall leg strength in the long term given that I am not training for anything specific in the near future. However, I am a bit disappointed that even my meagre goal of averaging 40km per week for the rest of 2010 seems like a pipe dream. Just breaking into the 30s is difficult at the moment...

Keep on keepin' on I suppose...