I can understand why many runners hate/avoid rest days. After six straight days on the road/trails, Monday was my scheduled rest day. As I mentioned to Marathon Maiden in the comments, while I felt strong running over the weekend, yesterday I was sluggish, stiff and sleepy. Before I went to bed I was thinking about what was in store for my first run of the week (today).
I decided to stretch at home and run to the park (working on a new habit). Within the first 3 miles I realized (a) I was going too fast, (b) I just did not have “it” this morning or (c) both (a) and (b). It felt like my lungs wanted to leap out of my chest. I could never catch my breath or get into any kind of rythmn. At the end the first 4 miles on the Bridle Path I saw actress Téa Leoni … liked her in Bad Boys. Oh yeah, yesterday my wife saw Nicolas Sarkozy and his entourage running in the park. The President of France spends more time on the Reservoir Path than he does in his own country!
After concluding that (b) was the correct answer … just did not have “it”, a rational person would have called it a morning and headed home. No way! I switched gears for some hill repeats. For some reason, I decided to hit them harder (w/ speed) than last week. Maybe it was the frustration of grinding so early in the run, but I got annoyed and went after it. 4 hard, fast repeats. How hard? So hard that on the cool down I started to get rumbling, queasy feeling in my stomach. For a second, I thought I might need to pull over, but I slowed down and it subsided. 9.16 miles.
Tiring, but a great workout.