Road to Boston

Technically today is my long run, but since it was a "step back" week, it wasn't very long!  I've decided to stick with Hal Higdon's advanced plan for the long runs only and then take everyone elses' advice (from here) about upping the mileage during the week.  So today was the shortest long run ever!  It's all upward from here.

That being said, I did a rolling hills loop with one true climb at the end and felt very good with average pace of 9:06.  Again, for me, this is a nice solid pace, and I felt strong the whole way.

It's great that this was a shorter long run because I think I want to move my long runs to a weekday - - so now I can move my next long run to Friday without incident.   That will be a 13 miler.

 It probably helps that this is the first normal weather I've run in for months.   Where I live, the weather bites.  It's either freezing or super windy or hot/humid (though more rarely that).  Mostly freezing. Today was perfect for me.  70's with a very light drizzle.  I was totally comfortable.  

Yesterday, my miles were slower and flatter.  I did the first four at a nice clip, but then I met up with a friend who hasn't been running and did two slower ones with her.  Average was 9:20.

Then, I tried yoga for THE VERY FIRST TIME!!  It's a lot harder than it looks.  And I'm definitely sore this morning.  I think I liked it.  I'm going to try it a few more times to see if it grows on me . . .lol . . .

12:00 min/mi pace on a very hilly trail.  We counted the number of hills once and there were 29 . . lol . . .and some of them are pretty steep and long.  Still I'm always surprised at how slow I run trails.  There's definitely a fear factor.  I'm worried I'll fall on the downhills so I'm pretty careful.    I've done it before so I know how possible it really is ;).

A nice 6 miler today.  Felt very good.  Ran 9:08 min/mile.  I am surprised that I'm increasingly comfortable at this faster speed.  I used to be really wedded to 10:00 min/mi.  For ages.  Now I feel more like I am running and less like I am jogging.  I am a little concerned because I think it was the spring training speedwork I did that helped my speed, and now I'm not doing that speedwork . . .but I just tell myself that the endurance building is important too.

Today was my long run, and I can't say it was easy, but overall it went well.  My average pace was 9:16 - - again, very good for me. And I really was just "running the way I felt" - - not pushing it.   I actually felt great until the last mile which was up a very long hill, and it started to get a lot hotter.  Also, I thought I had mapped out a perfect 13 mile loop, but turned out - - I didn't.  So when I thought I should be done, I still had 0.7 miles to go.  It's not much I know, but psychologically I felt . . .well, done.  So that last little bit was the biggest flog of the whole run . . .lol.

Wow - - after my 13 mile run on Thursday, I was beat today.  I did my six miles rather unenthusiastically with an average pace of 9:55.  Definitely wasn't feeling it.

Rest day.

My sons had four baseball games collectively, so I will say I really did rest from a physical standpoint, but mentally I felt pretty jazzed up because each game was squeaky close.  By the end of the day, I actually really wanted to run!  But it was too late.  I felt all sort of pent up and antsy.  I don't like my non-running days.  It's like running is my anxiety reliever and when I don't do it, I really don't feel great.