A grinder

Yesterday, before leaving California, I ran a 7 mile recovery run along with some strides in Ojai, California while we visited our good friends, Chris and Sandra. I've had to rearrange runs this week because of the wine tasting party on Friday.  Friday is supposed to be a 12 mile day and I know I can't do it on Friday.  The only way would be to get up at 4:30 am and that would leave me pretty flat by the 6 pm party start.
I've moved the runs up one day and will do the 12 miles on Thursday.
Monday was supposed to be a rest day with Tuesday being the 7 mile recovery run.  I figured that I would just have to bag the run but then I slept through the night on Sunday, woke up at 6am, snuck out while everyone else was asleep and had a wonderful run in the Ojai Valley.  For whatever reason, it was a sweet little run and one that I'll remember.
Today I ran the last of the lactate threshold runs.  11 miles with 7 at half marathon pace (7:30 per mile).
I did it, but it was a grind. One hard run, indeed.  I was feeling tired before I started and most runs lately have left me more energized at the end - not this time. As I was showering I realized that I've run 4 days straight and covered 40 miles.  You know, that just might have something to do with it.  Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day.  The good news was that, after raining hard all day long, the rain stopped just during the window I was running.  That was very welcome because I was even contemplating having to go to the Y and run on the treadmill.  I'm sure glad that didn't happen.  It's amazing what 4 days in the sun will do to a person and how spoiled you can get.
Now it's back to the real world - the bright side of that coin however is how long it is staying light now.  Finishing up at 6 o'clock was no problem.  Quite a difference from several weeks ago.  Bring on Spring!