Sore, sore, sore...

I've got some delayed onset soreness on my quads since Monday. On Monday, I went out for a a few miles to loosen up. The route I took -- Ardleigh to Valley Green, up to Rex, and back up to Seminole and home -- had a lot of ups and downs, and I thought if I go at an easy pace, this run would help me stretch out the different muscles that were sore from Broad Street. I was struck by how beautiful this simple run was -- Chestnut Hill and the Wissahickon are so green this time of the year. With the sunlight peering through the trees, leaves rustling, and flowers blooming, I felt like I was on vacation. It was awesome.

I was probably more sore yesterday, but went to the Wanderers track practice anyway. Several people there had raced on Sunday, so I knew we wouldn't run too hard. Mark had us do 5 X 600's at 5K pace with a 200 walking break in between. (The folks who didn't race did 5 X 1,000's.) On the first one, Mark and I came in at 2:15, which was faster than even my fake 5K pace. It felt very hard -- my legs were dead and I was breathing forcefully. Sharon joined us on the next four, and we all took turns pacing. Fortunately, I felt better and better at each successive repeat. I guess that was a good recovery speed session. Afterwards, we hung around and talked. I'm feeling a little more comfortable now in this group of people who were recently strangers to me. It's nice to have a community like that.