I don't know that my body felt much better running today, but my mind was much more at ease. My legs have been feeling heavy and sluggish all week. It might have to do with the lack of sleep. I still managed to keep a 7:58 pace. I kind of felt like knocking my watch against the ground to make sure it was working right because my legs definitely felt like they were going at an 8:45 pace. Give all the 45 second credit to my mind. I'm starting these long runs out thinking I'm going to take it easy, but I usually finish them briskly. I don't know if that's good or bad.
But I'll tell you what I do know, I love my long day runs. Love, love, love them. Because when you go eleven miles you can usually choose to go somewhere pretty and there is lots of time to focus on the details of the prettiness. Today I ran out in the prairie along a river. The yellows and browns of the grass and trees and leaves made me feel like I was running into an old-timey photo. Like maybe I'd run into a homestead dug-out where I'd find a dirty two-toothed farmer shooting the hat off of some guy all dressed in black trying to steal his horse. I didn't run into that though. I did run past an old shack that's probably been around since forever and it gave me a bit of the creeps to think that somebody or something might be hiding inside just waiting for me to pass so they or it good jump out at me and yell "Boogooody Boo!" or something frightening like that. That didn't happen either though. I just got me a quiet, beautiful run in. Nice. |