15K on 4 hr sleep

I don't recommend this. 15K on 4 hr sleep is not fun. I didn't get to sleep until after 1 am, because of the piano competition. They announced the results about 11 pm (sadly, Greg did not make the finals), and then Greg and I went to the store on the way home, and I was buzzing from the adrenaline of the whole thing and from the coffee I had before we went over there. Greg makes some SERIOUSLY strong coffee; good, but strong. I digress. It was at least 11:30 when we got home, and then I ended up chatting on FB with my coach and with another racewalker from Australia, David. I was also waiting up for Greg to find out about changing his plane reservations to go back tonight instead of Friday, so by the time I got to bed it was about 1 am. It took at least 15-20 min to fall asleep, and my alarm was set for 5:15 am. UGH! I had to make sure that I got back from my walk by about 7:30; the Bachauer competitors & hosts were invited to special seating at the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast this morning, with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square, and we were to arrive there by 8:45 am. Whew.

So, I set off on my walk about 5:45 am. I ate a banana before leaving, because I still felt a bit shaky from the previous nights' coffee. I felt GREAT for the first 6K. I was thinking a lot about the upcoming 5K & 10K in Sacramento, and how exciting it's going to be. I just found out from the website that Katie Grimes, who I raced in the Portland Marathon as well as in Spokane in 2008, is going to be there. That means we're going to have a great race! We always push each other so well, and I'm totally looking forward to it. We are very evenly matched, though I think she has the edge in the shorter races, with a faster PR than me. So on the hilly first 6K, I thought about that and also thought about how Greg didn't make the finals last night. I still feel really disappointed about that; I thought he had a reasonable shot at it, and I'm actually quite sad that he didn't make it. This morning my sadness had a bit of an angry edge, and so I walked fast on the hills. The combination of the fast first 6K on the hills (I did about 6:30 on them) and the lack of sleep caught up with me later, however. I had a lot of trouble keeping my pace at the end, and I did slow. My legs felt heavy again today; not horribly so, but enough to feel tired and slowed down and out of sorts. Oh well. I'm not worried about this, as I think a day off (tomorrow) will cure it. But it made me slow.

The worrisome thing is my left foot. That's the one I injured last summer. I noticed a little ache in the place where I had the tendonitis (peroneus longus tendonitis, where the tendon inserts in the first metatarsal). It started about maybe 6-8K into the walk and never really hurt, but it did ache. Now, at noon, it is still aching. I did take some diclofenac, my prescription anti-inflammatory, but it's still bothering me a little. I hope this is not going to be a problem. I will rest tomorrow, do some gentle PT exercises, ice it, and take some more diclofenac, and hope for the best. I think it will be OK, but it's annoying that it's bothering me again. I also will retire the shoes I was wearing, as they have about 370 miles on them now and it's time. Hopefully all of this will make it OK.

I forgot to switch my Garmin from "biking" to "running" so the workout is in 2 segments on Garmin connect. The first was a steep uphill of 0.45km in 3:42. Then I remembered, and had to reset it and start over. GRRRR! The rest of the workout (linked here)was in 1:35:42 for a total of 1:39:24 for the 15K, or 6:37/km. Ave HR for the last 14.55 km was 148, so I was working reasonably hard. I was just slow today, and my legs were tired, and now my foot aches. Oh well. I did OK, though, and feel all right about it as long as my foot holds up. I have two exciting races coming up July 23 and 25!