Sluggishness

I've had a pretty obnoxious IT band issue for the last two or three weeks. I've been able to run through it, but doing workouts where I'm stopping and starting...thus any interval workout is pretty painful. While cutting out this type of training along with all strides has helped the IT band improve a bit, I've been feeling sluggish and slow recently because of the change.

Sunday I went long with Sam, Chris, Matt, and Roni. We hit up Old Angler's Inn for 3.5 in the trails and the rest on the Canal. I was planning to hit 14, but everyone except Chris only wanted 10 and my IT was not feeling great. We bumped the pace down to 6:25s for the last few miles which should feel pretty moderate but I was hurting. The combination of the intense heat and humidity along with a bit of a limp left me feeling pretty crappy by the end of the run, but it was a good effort nonetheless. I ended up getting in 12.

Today, while needing a speed workout but not wanting to exacerbate my leg, I opted for a hard 10. I definitely felt sluggish and getting my legs to turn over faster than 6:00 pace was tougher than it should have been. While I wasn't getting tired, it was more a matter of keeping up the turnover and cadence that was difficult. I finally got moving during the fifth mile and ran the last six in 34:29. I completed the full ten in 59:14--not at all a bad effort for how "off" I was feeling at those paces.