A bit fatigued

23.4km medium long run this morning. Was supposed to be moderate pace for the last 8km but didn't work out that way. I felt very fatigued and flat for at least the first 15km and was a bit worried that I had overdone it recently to the extent that I was thinking about how I could scale back Wednesday's 21.5km to something a bit shorter as I don't want to get myself into a hole. The next 6 weeks are the most important weeks of my program. I'm happy with how everything has gone so far and don't want to stuff things up by overtraining (or also by peaking too soon).

I was trying to work out what might have caused it and the only thing I can put it down to is the afternoon spent gardening rather than recovering on Saturday after my long run. I'm usually pretty disciplined about having a bit of a lie down and maybe a nap on Saturday if possible which I didn't get to do but it wasn't particularly strenuous yard work. I guess it shows how important rest is.

So these were the thoughts going through my head as I was running out to Matilda Bay and back. Funnily though, from about the Belltower on (maybe earlier) I started to feel better to the extent that when I got to the Marathon Club and turned to head home (about 3.5km) I was feeling pretty good. There was a slight north easterly blowing behind me so I lifted the pace up to marathon pace for the trip home and felt much better physically and mentally as a result.

1 hour 44 minutes which is the same as I did it about 4 weeks ago at a steady pace. Average pace is around 4.26/km but I would have been running a bit slower than that for most of the run. So well within my McMillan range despite the difficulties.

Recovery run tomorrow. I read somewhere recently that you should take your recovery runs as seriously as your hard workouts as they are just as important (as long as you have done your hard workouts) to your overall improvement and adaptation/compensation. I have gotten over the ego part of getting overtaken by other runners and running slowly on my recovery runs now and quite enjoy them. Might even get the iPod out tomorrow as long as the weather isn't too bad.

Great to see that SBS2 will be showing the Men's and Women's Marathons from the World Champs live and that they are on at a reasonable time. Most of the stuff on the track will be happening in the early hours of the morning Perth time so the video recorder will be getting a bit of a workout.