Savoring the Easy Life

This past week was a big one for me, in terms of running. Actually, one might say it was small. You see, it was the next-to-last week with only four scheduled runs, and it was the last time to only have one 5-miler. I was to run 3,4,5,3. It was interesting, to say the least.

The weather heated back up, so night running was my best option early in the week. On Monday I headed to my old neighborhood. Long story short, I had a bit of 'runner dementia' and kinda-sorta forgot where I parked... so my planned three mile run turned into four. "No problem, " I thought. "Now tomorrow I can 'just' do three miles." And so it was.

When it came time for my first 5-miler (in over four months, mind you) the plan was not executed verbatim. Our day began with Chasen having a dead battery, so some car swapping was in order, as well as a trip to the auto parts store, so my residential course to begin at 9 AM turned into the main drag at 10 AM. It was near drudgery, I tell ya! It was hot, sunny, slow... ick. I didn't expect miracles, so in a way I was right on par.

But then came Saturday morning. I was 'only' supposed to do three speedy miles, so I headed to the old 'hood and kicked it into high gear. Even though I am still doing a walk-run combo, I really gave it all I had. Most of my running stints were done at sub-11 (which is very fast for me these days) and my final burst was at --get this!-- a 9:33 pace. Wowee zowee! That's what 62 degrees with a breeze will do for ya!

Now I am entering what I call the final truly 'easy' week of training, yet also the first 'hard' week of training. You see, I have three five mile runs on the schedule this week, as well as four miles of speedwork on Saturday. That's still just four runs total (that's the easy part) but each are more than my usual 3-4 miles (that's the hard part). And the week after that I break into my full-blown training, i.e. five days per week. Wish me luck. I've got fifteen weeks to get it all together!