What a turn around!

What a turn around between today's run and the runs yesterday and the day before! For the past two days I had the worst runs imaginable. They were slow and painful. Tuesday's run was so bad that half way through it I felt like I never wanted to run again.

Today I had ten miles scheduled. I ended up running 11.74 miles. I didn't run fast, but I was able to maintain an easy pace (sub 8:00 miles) without giving a more than normal effort. While I'm not ready to say I'm back to normal. I have regained a lot of the enjoyment that I usually feel towards my running. I'm still going to take it easy for the rest of this week and pick up the speed workouts beginning with next week's schedule.

The question that I need to answer is why the improvement. I think it's a combination of factors. One key factor is that I had a great lunch that was full of healthy carbs (it was a bowl of carne asada, rice and beans). One other factor is that I'm getting back to normal after my blood donation last week. If I can continue to have good workouts through this weekend, it will be a huge confidence boost as I make my push towards my October 16 marathon.