I went to sleep really early last night, and as luck would have it, instead of getting extra sleep, I woke up really early too. 

My workout plan for today was to do my 40 minute run before work, and my 80 minute bike session after work. When you wake up at 4:45 am however, and lie in bed unable to get back to sleep, you decide to make a switch and do the bike workout before work.

My bike session this morning was not super intense.  It was six, eight minute intervals at the top of Zone 2, on two minutes rest.  It should have been no problem at all, but that was not the case this morning.  It didn’t get aerobically challenged on the ride, but my legs were dead.  Right from the start, my quads were burning and they hurt for the whole ride.  At one point, I even contemplated cutting the workout short, but I did manage to push through.

It was a horrible session, but I put it all down to my legs being fatigued, from the huge run block I am doing.  My thinking was that the cumulative fatigue from all that running, must have finally caught up with me. So, when it came time to run after work, I was dreading going out the door.

The weather outside was perfect for running.  It was warm with a cooling breeze.  I love fall weather.  With the fear of ‘dead’ legs in my mind, I chose to run the flattest route I could find.  I started running and almost immediately realized that my legs felt quite good.  They felt really good.  

I ended up having one my better Zone 2 runs.  I was effortlessly cruising at quite a fast pace.  The time flew by and I even chose to run up a hill to get home.  My legs did feel a little tired on that hill, but overall it was a great workout.

I have a longer, endurance run tomorrow.  Hopefully my legs on that run will feel like they did this evening, and not how they felt this morning.  Regardless, I will get the workout done and move on. 

That’s the great thing about training, the ‘bad’ workouts and the ‘good’ workouts, balance out over time.  The key is to just keep consistently moving forward.