Loops and Stairs

I almost gave up on the night's training - 5x MF loops + 3x stairs. Even going up Morse Road to reach the MF loop was a pain. I walked a little up the slope. My 1st MF loop was so slow, I took 11min vs a typical 9ish sub-10min per loop. That did not augur well. I started making backup plans, like run 3 loops and proceed back via Harbourfront, or do 5 loops and skip the stairs. KK sprinted past me at the end of my first loop. Then I caught up with Yean and Michael, and thereafter ran alone for the rest of the loops. The 2nd loop was a little better, and thankfully, my legs loosened up a little after the 3rd loop. I experimented with using higher quad lifts at a faster pace to get through the trudgery of the remaining loops. I stopped a few times to catch my breath or just stood at the spot to recover from my experiments. Right knee felt cranky and both ITB sides felt tight on the downhill. How come everyone else seemed to be running well? Clocked about 11min/loop.

I had not done stairs in a long while. After 4-1/2 MF loops, I stopped at the stairway, pondering very hard if I should go down or not. I guess I was probably swept up by the other runners and started down the steps with them. I half hopped and walked up the stairs, and tried to go in a rhythm of 10-steps run, walk, 10-steps run, walk. Managed to clock about 2:09min consistently for each set of stairs, quads were burning with heavy breathing and panting.