Winning Back What I Lost

630AM: Back to the grind on the eve of the official 1st day of summer. Stretched it out another mile this morning. Hoping to get back to 10M/day next week. Easy pace just under 8:00/mi pace. Foot pain wasn't a probem during the run but it is noticeable when I wiggle my toes and when I put on my shoes. Dive bombed by a couple of small birds along the canal path I usually run on near my house. This is the 3rd day in a row they've done that. I'm thinking of bring a tennis racquet w/ me tomorrow.

630AM: Easy run on dead legs. Breathing was a little labored as well. Didn't get good sleep last night and this is my first back to back runs since the marathon.  Still, it was a beautiful morning for a run. Summer is finally here, both in spirit and reality. Temp supposed to rise to the mid '80's today.  

630AM: Another easy run w/ 6 x 100m strides @ 5k pace. Seeing lots of runners & walkers out in the morning too.  I know summer has arrived when I'm capable of breaking into a full sweat this early in the morning. Glad I got the workout out of the way early because the temp is supposed rise to the mid 90's today. 

630AM: Easy run was not easy this morning. I've been struggling w/ a sore right foot since the marathon but now that soreness has started to alleviate but it seems to be migrating to my lower leg. It's more of a muscle strain but its located in the front part of my lower leg. I've had calf soreness before but never in the front.  

I had one goal for today's run: Concentrate on keeping my head up while I run and stay tall. It sounds silly but I really do stare at the ground in front of me an awful lot. I did better but the habit will take some time to break. 

640AM: Easy progression run starting slow and finishing the last mile at current MP.  Cooler and a little breezy this morning.  Surprised at the amount of attention and focus it takes for me to continue to look up, stand tall and breath deeper while running.  I realize that it will have only a small effect on performance during these "shorter" runs but over the course of an entire marathon the incremental impact could be significant, albeit difficult to quantify. 

Picked up FRBer Court on the way. Fun little out and back race that starts at Setter's Park and runs through a greenbelt area and 2 other city parks. It's flat and fast and the weather was darn near ideal. My A goal was sub 42 mins so I was pretty pleased w/ how I ran even though old man river, aka Court, left me in his dust from the beginning. He ran strong, 3rd overall, just behind another geriartric runner who I had heard a lot about from a lot of people but never actually met til today. :) 

Won my age group (only 5 of us) so I got a gift card to a local running store. It's a plastic card w/ no amount printed on it so I'm figuring that its a classic bait and switch to get you into the store only to find out it's $1 gift card.