I learned two lessons from last week...mainly because I can't decide which is the cause of my current bodily exhaustion.

First: There is a reason why easy runs are done at a SLOW pace. After planning my training schedule last week it was recommended to me that my easy runs be done at a 8:37/mile pace. Being the tough guy that I think I am I said this is way too slow. Well last week I combined a pair of overly hard speed workouts with easy runs that were at a sub 8/mile pace and now this week my body is exhausted and my legs are dead. Note:slow pace applies even/especially to recovery runs, which leads me to lesson number two

Second: After a long run take a day off or at least follow up with a recovery run. Over the summer I had been running my long runs on Saturdays (and being lazy on Sundays). But with the return of school our marathon team (captain this year...woot!!) had a 'welcome back' run last Sunday. Anyways I planned to run a very slow pace at the Sunday run to recover from my 10 miler on Saturday. Well things never seem to go as planned and I wound up running around 7:10/mile pace on Sunday...that is no way to recover.

Since I can't decide which caused my current exhaustion I am taking both to be essential lessons.