What happens when you have a really good workout?

...generally, I'd say you'd be sore (to answer my blog title question).

However, today that is not the case.  I thought I'd for sure be sore as my hamstring and calf tightened during my last repeat of my workout yesterday.  While I am extremely happy that I'm not sure, I used all 6 of my miles this morning to ponder why that was the case.

Yesterday I had a 5x1mile workout at 10k pace (I think that's probably 6-6:05 pace) with 90 seconds recovery.  I did it on my typical Target loop that I run on whenever I stay at Ryan's parent's house. It's almost 3 miles, so I figured I'd run the loop twice.

Only read this part if you know Schaumburg, know directions, or care to know my route...
The loop starts off flat at Plum Grove Road and Schaumburg Road for all you people that know directions.  I run on the bike path down Plum Grove Road towards Schaumburg Road and turn right at the stoplight in front of Conant High School.  That part is about 0.7 of a mile.  The next part is kind of fun as it's pretty much all downhill.  By the time I have to cross the street to turn left onto the bike path (this part takes me to Higgins Road before I turn right to follow the bike path), I'm at about 1.4miles.  I follow the bike path around Target and onto Meacham Road until it intersects with Schaumburg Road (at this point, 2.25miles) and then take that all the way back up to the Plum Grove Road intersection.  This part is a LONNNNG uphill.....the same one I got to go down when I hit Conant HS.

So anyway, I knew the first mile would be fast so I focused on form and good downhill running.

5:45.

Success.  It felt easy the whole time and I kept having to slow myself down.  Just what I wanted.

Second mile starts with a bit of an incline going towards Target.  I always hate this part.

5:55.

Success again.  By this point, I'm almost heading back up the hill. Boo:(

6:02.

Still successful as I made sure to focus on my form.  I knew I wouldn't be sub 6 on this one, so chose to focus on something I COULD control, such as my form.

5:55.

Going back down the hill again.  But, also going up the Target incline.  I call it a flat mile to be fair.

6:04.

That stupid uphill on Schaumburg Road gets me every time.  Like I said before, I knew this uphill would cause issues for me, so the first time around I made sure to focus on my form.  This time, I panicked.

Wanna know what happens when you panic???

Your form goes to (fill-in-the-blank).

Yeah. It's true.  I freaked out that I wasn't going to hit my time, panicked and my form got sloppy.  This also happened to cause my hamstring and calf (on my right leg, the hamstring that I tore last October running the Milwaukee Marathon) to tighten.

Nothing good ever comes from panicking.  Trust me.

While this workout was successful in terms of hitting my goal pace, it was even more successful in terms of lessons learned and quite honestly, those are the best types of workouts.

I'm still looking for a way to get out to West Des Moines, Iowa for the Hy-Vee Triathlon (Ryan has to work it now so won't be able to wait for me to leave after school on Friday, August 31).  If anyone knows someone or is doing it and wants someone to split gas with and entertain with stories, let me know.   Worst case, I don't do Hy-Vee and instead do one of the thousand races offered in the suburbs that weekend.

I'm not panicking :)