Recovery run. 7:23 am, 34°F, 51% humidity, wind 2 W. I've been taking it easy this week with sleeping in and running late. It's going to be a rude awakening to have to get back to real life and the dark, cold, early mornings next week. I got some new shoes for my birthday yesterday. Michelle went shopping with me. I had to lie to the sales punk about what distance I plan to run in them in order to get him to show me racing flats. In any case, I settled on the Brooks Green Silence, which are really red and yellow and look like Ronald McDonald shoes. Here they are: 
I ran the first 4 miles in these shoes, and then changed to the VFFs for the last two miles. I spent today's run thinking about tomorrow's 20 miler. I think the trail is going to be too snowy to run on. So my choices are to run a 20 mile loop on the streets, which would require me essentially to circumnavigate Highlands Ranch and would be very hilly. Or I could do repeats of a smaller loop, like do my 10 mile loop twice, but that would give me that nasty mile 5 hill that kicked my butt yesterday twice. Or I could do my 2 mile loop 10 times, or my 4 mile loop 5 times. I kind of like the idea of the 4 mile loop five times, because it doesn't take so long to do the 4 mile loop, and 5 repeats aren't that many, so it might seem shorter psychologically. And if I did either the 2 mile loop 10 times or the 4 miles loop 5 times, I could set up a little aid station in my front yard and practice drinking from cups on the run and then I wouldn't have to carry my fuel belt. Decisions, decisions. And just to make things even more fun, it looks like we're due for another snow storm tonight/tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll do 4 mile loops in my yak traks tomorrow. Dang these spring storms that mess up my long runs. This reminds me of last Spring when I ran 20 miles on a 1/12 of a mile indoor track because of snow. I guess this is the risk I take with training for a Spring marathon.
Incidentally, I've decided that I have seasonal allergies, not a head cold, because my snot is clear. Still, I'm kind of a sneezing, drippy mess, especially right after I come in from running. AP: 10:03. Splits: 10:29, 10:01, 9:47, 9:39, 10:06, 10:18. I was starting to get into a groove with those new Ronald McDonald shoes, but then I slowed way down in the VFFs. I just don't run fast in the VFFs for some reason. Maybe it's a good thing I switched to them today because this was supposed to be a recovery run, and I was starting to run too fast in the Ronald McDonald shoes.
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