Shamrock Tempo

Well in the end I decided to run the race in my trainers and do it as a tempo effort. I saw Caitlin and Meagan on the start line and they were looking to run around 5:40s so I just headed out with them and kept them company. As the leaders headed off into the distance I honestly didn't care. Had I laced up the flats and tried to hang with them it would only have got messy later on in the race and I'd have beaten myself up to run somewhere around 21:30 probably. As it was I was able to produce a solid, controlled effort in 22:38 and hopefully help out Caitlin and Meagan.

In spite of the controlled run and wearing my trainers, the legs still felt pretty beat up afterwards, so it was definitely a good job I didn't race. After all, having run just two or three times the previous month I wouldn't normally be jumping into a workout so soon!

Sunday I just headed out on those sore legs to try and flush them out a bit. 3.25 miles at 7:20 pace was about all they could handle. I'm writing this at lunch time on Monday having put off today's run until after work. My legs still feel sore but definitely better than yesterday so hopefully today's run will be a little more enjoyable. Hopefully this week will just be a matter of taking it day by day with the legs feeling progressively better and by the weekend I can start feeling like a runner again.

I'm starting to really look forward to our trip to England in a couple of weeks which will be very relaxing and also an opportunity to do some nice training. Lisa and I are also heading to Paris for a couple of days leaving the kids with my parents so that will be great!

The rest of the weekend was spent chasing round various birthday parties and watching some of the basketball. I also found a great new website from which I was able to watch a perfect live streaming of the Man U Liverpool game. A crucial victory and Chelsea slipping up at Blackburn made for a nice Sunday!

Finally, got to give a shout out to fellow Charlotte runner and blogger Jordan Kinley. After overcoming his own injury issues the last few weeks he was still able to lace up at the 4 miler to come 3rd and then head straight up to the Tobacco Road Marathon and run a 2:27 marathon despite not feeling great. I also found out the he only ran the 4 miler because he had read my post about the need to run to get the bonus points for the Grand Prix! I should have kept that quiet!