Recovery hurts.

That's it.  It just hurts.  This weekend I did an hour-long spin class, and then swam the slowest 1000 yards I've swam in quite a while.  It was the first time I've been in the pool since last September, and oh, did time fly (but I didn't.) I spent most of the rest of the day observing a high school chess tournament, and later ran a quick 1.6-mile trail run on a loop near my house, once of my favorite quick workouts.  This little run is going to be my benchmark, the run by which I track my progress.  I'm going to start doing it twice, because it's a nice little run, with a little bit of everything.

Then this morning, I futzed around putting off the inevitable, before finally setting out on my "long run".  I know I shouldn't be, but compared to what my long run has been in the past, it seemed kind of pathetic.  Once a week I do my long run on pavement, and today I did a whopping 8.5 miles, and boy, did it hurt.  It's the longest run on pavement that I've done since the Colorado Relay last year, in September.  I mean, OW.  

It's not my feet or legs that hurt.  It's my hips, and for some reason, it hurts down there.  'Sup with that??  I don't know what to think of that hurt.  Is it a developing hernia?  Is it my adductors/abductors (I always get those mixed up)?

The good news is that as my long pavement run has inched upward my pace, meanwhile, is inching downward.  I did this one at about a 13 minutes pace.  When I started this a month ago, I think I did about a 14:30 pace, so it's getting better.  But meanwhile, as I once again get used to running long distances, oh, how I hurt.  I HURT!  Mommy, make it stop!  

I decided that I'm just not ready for the long course at the Atomic Man duathlon, so I'll be contacting the race directors and asking if I can be placed in the short course instead.  I'm just not ready, and I don't expect any useful developments in the next 7 days.

So, things are slow, but things are happening.  It doesn't hurt that I have access to my workouts by walking out the door most of the time.  That makes a huge difference.  

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