Early morning's heart rate (58bpm@5:50am) seemed to say that
yesterday's run was too much for me.
Earlier last week, as I was recovering from Quicksilver, my
Z-Trail sandals arrived. Just as expected, their 10mm soles
were less flexible and doubled the cushion of that of the
Z-Trek. Running on the pavements in the new sandals, I could
feel the bounce and didn't have to worry about pebbles. They
were wonderful.
As a result, I confidently increased the pace (from sub-6io
to 5i6o) for short runs and yesterday's 6 miles left me with
sore quads. Outside, it was raining and I hated trudging in
mud on Mission Peak. To be honest, I was not eager to go out
at all and felt grumpy about it.
But the heart rate dropped to 46 by 7:45am! What the hell
did this mean? At least one thing it meant was that I had no
excuse now.
So after routine exercises, I dragged myself out of the door
in my most worn Z-Trek. The plan was to do as much road
running as I could. I have committed to a marathon in Aug.
Today was supposed to be my long slow distance run (LSD).
But the pace went up within the first mile and settled at
5i6o. I was a little tired of going too slow.
The air was cool, the shower came on and off and the trail
traffic was light. The creek came alive thanks to this
week's unexpected rainfall. In fact, for the one dozen years
that I lived in the Bay Area, this was the first time I saw
this much rain in May. Clear turquoise water flowing over
the two low-level dams made much noise which, as I
discovered, was almost inaudible at the upstream.
As I approached Niles, I ran into two geese with their two
goslings. As usual, the male was at the front and wouldn't
back down. In a fighting stance, he hissed at me. Luckily, I
bypassed without incidents. I had been through much worse
a few years ago on the levee. At least this time, they didn't
attempt kamikaze. (Humans are capable of believing in
fictions. What makes geese choose to fight? Instinct? There
seems to be more than that.)
I wouldn't say the run was great. I needed more rest. I was
able to enjoy a few intervals, however. From mile 8, I chased
after another runner. It took more than two miles to close the
distance but he left the trail before I could say hello.
The last mile (mile 12) was weak and painful. My feet started
to hurt and the legs felt rusty. In the end, one consolation
was that I had done it but that was not all. I learnt that with
the 5mm Z-Trek, my distance limit was half a marathon, and
I could do 5i6o for at least 10 miles (From past experiences,
a slower pace would have allowed me to run much longer).
