Fatigue is piling up but so is fitness (Eugene Half Week 5 of 8)

Oof geez I am so behind with all the work / running travel lately! I have a lot of these to get through so let's just get to it.

In case you missed it:

Eugene Half Week 1
Eugene Half Week 2
Eugene Half Week 3
Eugene Half Week 4

 ~*~*~ 🦆🦆 Eugene Half Marathon Week 5 of 8 🦆🦆 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 38.6 miles

🐌 Easy: 30.85 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 6 miles
🐎 Fast: 1.75 miles

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 79.9% vs. 20.1%. 

Blue = daily strain, red/yellow/green = daily recovery

Monday 4/1: a.m. strength

Tuesday 4/2: 3 warm up, 200m fast / 100m jog, 400m fast / 200m jog, 800m fast / 400m jog, 800m fast / 400m jog, 400m fast / 200m jog, 200m fast / 100m jog, 3 cool down = 8.6 total. A short & sweet one this week. Legs felt kind of heavy & sluggish post-long run workout & lifting day, but once I got out on the track I actually felt pretty good & ran these intervals all around probably 5K pace. Just fast enough to push a little and work on turnover but not so fast to wreck myself. Then came home & roasted a chicken for dinner. :)

Wednesday 4/3: 8 easy. Pretty tired but got it done.

Conservatory of Flowers looking moody & fabulous

Thursday 4/4: 7 easy. The schedule said 8-10 but I cannot oversell just how completely exhausted I was. I thought I was shuffling on Wednesday but Thursday I was practically trudging. Could I have completed 8-10 miles? Sure! It would have super sucked even more than seven miles did but I could have done it. But the priority was saving something for Friday's 15 miler, so I really thought it was smarter to cut it short. (I almost turned around at three miles but thought "Ehhh let's go one more half-mile." It still might have been too much.)

Friday 4/5: 6.75 easy, 2 x (3 @ HM pace / 3:00 jog), 1.95 cool down = 15 total. We were traveling this past weekend to see the eclipse in Texas and I knew motivating to get this workout in there would be hard, so I just sucked it up & did it on Friday.

After feeling so wiped out on Thursday, I tried to go to sleep early Thursday and get some extra sleep but it didn't quite work out (thanks insomnia 🤦🏻‍♀️). I had some work meetings Friday morning and afternoon but after those were over, I managed to grab a nap. I still didn't feel great after that but did feel a bit more rested, so I headed out without looking at my recovery score (because again, what's the point? 🤣).

I did not feel as great as last weekend's HM pace workout but I was honestly surprised that I didn't feel worse. The intervals weren't as quick as last week but there still absolute solid and more than acceptable pace-wise. I'll take it!

Saturday 4/6: Fly to Texas! We made plans to visit family in Texas for the total eclipse over a year ago & it's so weird that it's finally almost here.

Starting the trip off right with a giant skillet of Texas queso

Sunday 4/7: 7 easy. Rest day. I noticed Saturday night and Sunday morning that I was having some sharp throbbing pain in a spot on my shin and also some pain in my right knee in a way that was kind of concerning (I am sure due to four days in a row of running 7-15 miles). It was making me a bit nervous so I decided better safe than sorry and took Sunday off instead & just hung out with the family.

🎧In my ears this week:🎧

• The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill. Theodosia Benton has finally accepted that, in spite of her grandfather's wishes (and financial support), she actually does not want to be a lawyer and instead wants to be a writer. When Theo leaves Australia and arrives on her older brother Gus's doorstep in Lawrence, Kansas, Gus takes her in and does his best to support her as she pursues her new dream. Theo soon meets a well-known writer who becomes her mentor, but things go south when she finds him brutally murdered in his home. Theo and Gus soon find themselves investigating conspiracy theories and dodging murder accusations.
• The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf. True crime writer Wylie Lark is holed up at an isolated farmhouse in a small Iowa town to finish her latest book--a house where twenty years ago, two people were brutally murdered, one little girl barely escaped, and another disappeared without a trace. Wylie is baffled to find a little boy alone outside in the snow; then things only become more baffling and desperate when she and the boy find themselves snowed in with no phone service and power. By the time the night is over, all of Wylie's question--about the horrific local crime, the abandoned child, and her own past--will be answered, for better or worse.
• This Is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf. Twenty-five years ago, Detective Maggie O'Keef's childhood best friend was found brutally murdered in a local cave. The case was never solved, but suspects include the girl's controlling boyfriend, a local vagabond, and her strange and off-putting sister, just to name a few. But now new evidence has come to light, and Maggie--now seven months pregnant--finds herself taking up the case where her former-police chief-father left off.
• The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. In 1634, the legendary detective Samuel Pipps has been accused of a crime for which he is being transported from Batavia back to Amsterdam for trial and (likely) execution on an Indiaman sailing ship. But the voyage seems cursed from the beginning, and with Pipps in chains, it's up to his loyal bodyguard Arent to solve the mystery of zombie lepers and mysteriously appearing symbols before some terrible fate befalls the ship and its denizens. Same author as The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, but a very different style of book.

That's all for week 5!