Lusardi Loop Heartache

Tried the Lusardi Loop today.  I haven't run this in awhile, and I thought it would be a good, challenging change of pace for a semi-long weekend run.

Kicked my butt.  Have I de-conditioned a little since the marathon?  Or was I just paying a penalty for yesterday's hard 5K with strength training tossed on top?  I want to think it was the latter.

I did alright through about 5 miles or so.  I wasn't trying to be speedy, and the hills -- both up and down -- held me to around an 8:30 to 9:00 pace.  Still, I could tell the final third of the course was going to be tough as I could feel myself running down.  The uber steep climb up to the top of the second power line hill around 5 1/4 miles really took the wind out of my sails.

(It was kind of cool to catch up with a pair of mountain bikers at the top of that hill who had passed me around 2 miles before.  Of course, I was heaving by then and they were able to coast down the hill.  Still, I felt a little like a he-man at that point.)

I tried to soldier on and was able to recover a little and make it to mile 6 around 55 minutes into the run, but I could feel my legs were gone. I started into a run/walk sequence once down on the level path following the river gorge toward Del Sur.  By the time I crossed under the overpass and forded the stream, I was walking more than running.  Water wasn't a problem.  I'd gotten plenty at a pair of stashes at 3 and 6 miles.  And the sun was only just coming out, so temperature wasn't a problem.  In fact, the cool-ish temperature and slight breeze made it just about perfect conditions.  It really was the elevation ups and downs that were getting to me.

I tried to resolve myself to making a good effort up the final climb all along the last mile, but just couldn't execute.  I came in to the finish point at over an hour and 30 minutes.  I'm going to want to try this again, and I'm sure I'll better today's benchmark.  I just need to respect the course and not think I can fatigue myself the day before and still believe I can tackle it with little problem.

So, I'll take a rest day tomorrow before working to get ready for next Sunday's 10K race.  I would really like to run that one in 46:00 or better.  So I need to do all I can to make sure I'm fresh for that.