Wednesday felt like a hangover for me. My quads and hip flexors were sore for some reason so I knew the hill circuits that I was going to be running would be tough. I got to Buffalo Park early so I could do a short jog and then some stretching before everyone got there to warm up. It was pretty tough doing my quad stretches but it was one of those "hurt so good" stretches. Once everyone arrived we headed down the trail for our usual 20 minute warm up. I would be doing the workout on my own and that was probably a good thing as I could have made my legs a lot worse by hammering every hard effort. The circuit is a 2 mile loop with 5 hard efforts involved. A 700m hill, a 100m slight downhill, a 200m steep uphill to flat, 700m downhill and then finish with a 80m flat stride. The long hill was really tough for me and I couldn't really get going on it. I was running against the wind but it wasn't so strong that it would slow me down as much as it did. I ran 2.22 on every lap which is a lot slower than I usually run it. I have run it in 2.03 before but I wasn't too bothered to be honest as no matter how slow you go on the hill, you still get a really good workout. I knew my legs weren't right when I found the flat and downhill strides tough to do but I was happy to get through the 8 miles. The warm down felt good on my legs as it helped them to stop screaming at me. I headed home after this, had breakfast (massive omlette and freshly juiced apple, celery and melon) and then passed out for two hours.

I woke up feeling so much better than when I went to bed so I brewed some tea and had some yoghurt to wake up a little. I pretty much just sat in front of the computer doing work and then watching TV programs until I had to go out for my next run. This was a day where I really needed to keep my feet up. The second run was a nice and easy 8 miles along the flattest trail I could find. It actually climbed slightly for the entire way out so turning round and running downhill felt a lot better. About 400m from the house I had a little stand off with some elk that were crossing the trail. This has happened quite a lot the last few days but they just run on after they have stared at me for a little while. I got back to the house and did my usual drills and strides on the road before heading inside and preparing dinner. I made some tilapia with mashed yams and garlic brussels' sprouts. It turned out well and filled both Julie and I right up. I say that, but there was still room to head downtown and grab a free birthday ice cream with a voucher I had been sent.

I slept well that night!