Freethinker ~ Freerunner

I am currently training for an Olympic distance triathlon in September.  The runs in this program are way to light for my current level of running fitness and liking.  I was only supposed to run 40 minutes this morning.  That just sounded way to boring and worthless of a workout to me.  I went out the door thinking I would probably run at least an hour.  When I got about 30 minutes in I realized that only running an hour felt too short.  I told my self that I would run for an hour and half.  By the time I got to the 45 minute mark I was almost to the University so I decided to not turn around until I got at least to that point. 

I ended up running a time of 1:39:23 and 12 miles.  That was more like it I thought.  I want to feel like I accomplished something after a Sunday long run.  Maybe this is why some have compared the running addiction to a drug addiction.  The more miles you run the more you have to run in order to feel fulfilled.  Yeah I said it.  Just like drugs.  

What a nice morning it was to experience the joy of running it was.  The metaphysical benefits are enormous.  I am out all alone early in the morning before sunrise with nothing by my thoughts to keep me company.  I feel the wind on my skin and I hear the occasional babbling brook as I run along.  That was the perfect way to start my Memorial day weekend. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to modify my Olympic Triathlon training program to balance higher mileage running workouts with the rest of the biking and swimming workouts.  Taking today as an example my run workout was only supposed to be 24 minutes, but that just feels way to short of a work out for me considering my current level of fitness and marathon training to begin in 9 weeks.   

The run portion of my Triathlon is only six miles.  When I consider the run portion of the race I think that I don't need to be running 30 plus miles per week, but when I consider that by the time I'm finished with my race I will be ten weeks out from my marathon I know I need to begin bumping up the miles now.  I've looked a little bit online for good training plans that accommodate a triathlon followed by a marathon ten weeks later, but I can't seem to find anything.  Is my best bet just to run more during triathlon training so that by the time I'm finished with the tri I will have a suitable running base?  If anyone has any suggestions or has experience running triathlon and marathon I'd appreciate any suggestions.  

My legs felt totally fatigued this morning.  All the extra biking and swimming is starting to take a toll on my body.  I figured I might go through some kind of adjustment period like this as my body begins to acclimate to the rigors of triathlon.  I may need to build in an extra rest day sometime in the next week though in order to heal up and become stronger.