Windy Six

Tuesday, April 21:

Legs felt weak at the start, going into the 20-mph wind on the dirt trail along the railroad tracks. I didn’t push it - I walked for a minute or so after each mile and sometimes briefly in between. Nevertheless the pace was better than I expected.

Not sure why my legs felt weak. Sixteen miles last Thursday, eight-mile trail race Saturday, three fairly hard miles yesterday along with DEX, perhaps it was the sum of those things. Anyway I felt a little better as the miles clicked off. No pains.

Splits: 9:00, 8:56, 9:42, 9:02, 9:39, 9:42, total 56:01, pace 9:20. Good enough.

Monday, April 20:

Story (1): I tried to skip out for a short run between little showers today, and almost made it. But on the way home, a quarter mile away, the sneet (snow/sleet) suddenly started. Not a lot, and it was blowing from behind, so it was more amusing than threatening. Kinda fun actually, the little round balls bouncing off my head and shoulders. It ended as quickly as it started, exactly as I reached me driveway. At the house a little piled-up row of sneetlets had bounced down the roof and collected on the ground under the eves, so that’s how much sneet we got.

Story (2): This was a DEX day - I took the dexamethasone last evening. Usually I don’t run on DEX day because, the theory goes, the muscles can’t replace the glycogen. But the other theory says that the body responds to exercise in the presence of any steroid, even DEX, by building muscle. Normally DEX causes muscle to shrink, so perhaps it’s possible to prevent that wasting by exercising appropriately on DEX day. I need to learn more about this.

Anyway the run went just fine. 2.7 miles in 22:56, for a pace of 8:30. Plenty quick for me on a relatively hilly course. Maybe DEX day is better than I think.



Lunch today: Organic chicken & turkey sausage, organic chard with a few dried & sweetened cranberries, pecans, fresh blueberries. That sausage is new to us, quite peppery, and I love it.