Today was long run day.  I love long run day.  I suppose this is because I came to triathlon from a running background.

I knew today was going to be cold, so I made the decision to run late afternoon, when the temperature was predicted to get above freezing point.  This meant I had most of the day to complete something on the ‘honey do’ list.  Today, that something was to install a garage door opener.

The installation took way longer than I thought it would.  I don’t know why I thought it would be quick; these things are always more complicated than they should be.  I eventually got it done, but only after going up and down the step ladder about a hundred times!

My wife and I headed to the local park for our long runs at about three o’clock.  It was cold, but otherwise quite nice with relatively little wind.  My wife headed out on her run and I followed a few minutes later.

Today’s route was a double loop around the lake at our local park.  The loop has undulating hills, with an option for a more significant hill at one point (I chose the hillier route today).  Each loop is five miles long.

As I began running, my legs felt ‘dead’.  This is nothing unusual.  It is well known that the ‘first mile lies’ and things get better after the body is warmed up.  For me, it often takes a lot longer than a mile before I feel fully in the flow of things. It can take up to four to five miles sometimes.

Today was one of those days where I didn’t feel good for the whole run.  My legs were just tired the whole way.  First my feet and calves felt sore, but after a mile or two this feeling went away. Then it was time for a dull, tired feeling in my quads.  To try and overcome this, I have been working to engage my glutes and hamstrings more.  I do this by slightly modifying my hip angle.  Today this trick worked… it removed the dull pain in my quads.  The problem was that it replaced that quad pain with a burn in my glutes.  My glutes need to be stronger, so I decided this was the best ‘pain’ to deal with.

I ended up running just over ten miles and never got into that easy pace, easy run feeling.  My legs were just not up to it.  The key thing however, is that I got my long run done and I did it at the same pace that I normally do my long runs.  The tired feeling doesn’t mean you go slower, it just feels harder.

Finally, I thought I would mention that I am also dealing with slight nasal congestion …. I’ll spare you the details of how I dealt with that on my run!!

While running on tired legs might not sound like fun, and mostly it isn’t,  I do think it’s an important part of training for long distance triathlons.  During half and full distance triathlons, there are definitely times when your legs feel very tired.  When you get this tired feeling in a race, it’s good to reflect on training days like today and realize that you can get through it.