Notes
36 deg
Long Run
Fast walked & did drills b4hand. Left big toe/seismoid bothersome prior. Ran down to Old Bell entrance of McAlpine. fr Charlotte Preparatory (up fr Boyce). First mile left big toe/seismoid very bothersome to where I did not think I could go past 5-6 miles. Felt a sense of fatigue in my legs despite the day off. As I ran down also ran some loops back up the hill at Charlotte Christian (running uphill helped get me into a better rhythm). Got onto the greenway 2 miles in, very dark & had headlamp on head. Veered off to the trail to Boyce (for whatever reason my pace on the dirt trail was 15-25 seconds slower?) dodging puddles & then running off the trail twice. Got to park (dark) and ran the 5k course backwards (legs did not feel great in mile 5 or 6, big toe/seismoid ok but middle toe/4th toe & seismoid began to really bother). Feet began to feel ok during mile 6 & then ran up the extension to the Clark Creek greenway and looped back. Felt better in mile 7 (more ambient light and stride felt good), fell off in mile 8 (mile 8 was reverse of what I ran in mile 7 which is after the first 1/2 mi of the 5k course but started to feel like I had to go to the bathroom). Ran the back loop of the course backwards, running up the incline at the back re-invigorated my cadence/stride, and then got a real scare as when I was about 200m fr the lake I heard something big "splash" in the wetland (sounded like a big alligator) and the adrenaline really shot (flight more than fight). This then provided the "jolt" to push the final 3 miles faster. Somewhere into mile 11 (where I was on the Boyce trail) my left big toe/seismoid) got more sensitive like last week (esp on any turn to my left). Final 2.5 mi were all uphill.