Go slow to go fast.

Easy cruise on the Charles river path after seeing Nan off on the bus to the start of the Boston Marathon.  It felt kind of cool to be running in toward town on the way back and imagine all the runners who would soon be doing the same.  Although I was glad to partake of that moment without the pain that most would be experiencing right there.

Back in Colorado.  Glad to be home.  Tired.  I didn't sleep much the last couple nights.

Tried out the new 507's I got for 40 bucks thanks to Faceless G.  So far so good.  I really liked the zero drop and they have great rock protection and a super low profile.  What's not to love? They are still slightly narrow for my liking, even with the 2E width...but they're not bad.

Just ran an easy 4.5 miles up skunk canyon part of the way and back. 

By the time I got out the door for my run for the day at 5:30 pm, my legs were basically jumping out of my shorts to go running.  I felt kind of cooped up all day.  And also, I missed my regular workout yesterday.  So I guess my body is just itching to get out and run faster.  Hence I think I'll do a speed workout tomorrow morning.

But today I just started heading up table mesa, and decided to run up to NCAR and back.  Its a nice steady road run that gains over 700' over 2.7 miles.

As I looked down at my pace early on I realized I must be feeling pretty good because I was running about 7:00 pace.  I just went with that, and it was one of those runs where everything just felt amazing.  Zero soreness, lots of strength.  Maybe it was mental...I couldn't get all those world and american record setting runners from Monday out of my minds eye as I was running.  It seems I often feel faster or better after I witness really fast strong runners for some reason. 

Anyway, I cruised up the entire ascent feeling pretty incredible and hit the sign at the top in 20:44.  As I just looked back at my previous best time up that route from my house, I beat it by nearly 5 minutes! And I wasn't running all out.  Just a steady, really smooth feeling run. It's kind of cool when that happens.  The stats for the ascent are 2.7 miles, ~725' vertical, 7:41/mile.

At the top I added a slow easy mile out and back on the trail up toward the mesa trail, then headed back down on the road.

Total: 7 miles - 52 minutes - 7:26/mile - 1020' vertical.

Thought I would do a speed workout today.  But was a little unsure if I would have the motivation because I may have run too hard of an effort yesterday up to NCAR.  

Decided to go for it because I was feeling good when I woke up.  Was going to do an 800, 1600, 800 and then 4-6 X 400.

It was a pretty steady drizzle of rain on me during the warmup, and about 43 degrees out.  So the warm up actually felt kind of like I got progressively colder, wetter, etc.  My jacket was heavy and soaked and my gloves after the warmup and stretch.

Did the first 800 in 2:45 - just getting the legs moving.  Then I went into the mile and the 1/4 splits were progressively slower until I just kicked it into gear the last 400.  I did the 1600m in 5:24 with splits of 80, 82, 83, 79.  But finishing with that 79 kind of sucked my energy out.  I walked it off, then jogged a bit and started into the next 800, but after 400 of it in 81 seconds, I threw in the towel.  I had lost my motivation to run fast in the rain.  I decided to hold off until Saturday to get an easy day in and then I'll feel fresh for the workout.

Jogged home with Patrick Hunt who was finishing up an easy workout at the same time. 

Barefoot Friday.  The sun came out this morning for my weekly barefoot jaunt which was nice of it.  Although, I really enjoy running barefoot in the rain too.  I didn't know where I wanted to run until I got out about a mile.  Then I started feeling really good so I decided to head up toward Boulder Canyon on the bike paths.  I made it up part of the way into the canyon a half mile past EGF park before hitting 5 miles and deciding to turn around.  It was a super enjoyable smooth feeling easy run where I just felt like I was gliding effortlessly through town.   I love those runs!  And I really love the creek path network because I can run for miles in every direction without crossing roads or having to stop at all.  And its an especially smooth and comfortable surface to run barefoot on.

10 miles - 1:14:55 - 7:29 avg. - 400' vertical

I think I got too much sleep last night.  I slept from 9 - 7.  That's the only explanation I can come up with for feeling lethargic and weird all day.  This was the first day in as long as I can remember that I had a hard time getting myself out the door to go run.  Weird mental funkyness going on today.  I finally did get out for a run at 5:30.  It took a mile or so of seriously slow trudging along that my body and mind finally started to warm up to the idea.  It wasn't until about mile 4 that I actually noticed how beautiful the fowler trail was as I was heading east toward the mouth of Eldorado canyon approaching the massive cliffs that stand as gates to the canyon.

There's nothing like a run through a beautiful wooded single track in the canyon to snap me out of a mental funk.  Felt a million times better afterward...just wish I would have run first thing in the morning so I would have felt better all day. 

5 miles - nice and slow.