Larry called last night to say he wasn't feeling well and would not be running this morning. Since it wasn't my turn to drive the junior high carpool, I decided to go to basketball again with my son Andrew this morning. It was a lot of fun. At lunch time I decided to head to the fitness center and put in a few miles on the treadmill: 0.5 mi @ 7.0 mph (8:34/mi) 1.0 mi @ 7.5 mph (8:00/mi) 2.0 mi @ 8.0 mph (7:30/mi) 0.5 mi @ 8.6 mph (6:59/mi) 0.5 mi @ 9.3 mph (6:27/mi) It's feeling good to get some runs in where I'm beginning to push the pace a little. I worked hard today but I ran within myself, felt good, and recovered pretty quickly. I'm registered for the Painter's Half Marathon in January, and the Spectrum 10K in March, but I haven't really set any goals for these races yet. My main goal is to get the guaranteed entry into the St. George Marathon for next year by participating in the Runner Series. I've also thought about running the Death Valley marathon in December with some buddies who are seriously considering it, but I'm still undecided. I think my plan for the next while is going to be similar to the past few weeks, namely, "If you feel like it, do it." This will likely continue to include basketball on occasion, morning runs with my neighborhood buddies, and lunch time runs, both indoors (on the fitness center treadmills) and outdoors (weather permitting). The speed and distance of the workouts will likely depend on whom I'm with and how I feel that day. In other words, I plan to go with the flow and just experience the pure joy of running for a while, without the pressure of trying to achieve some preset goal. There will be plenty of time for that next spring. It may seem odd, but I'm feeling the need to express my gratitude to God for the ability, desire, and opportunity to run; to be able to do it amid the natural beauty, good friends, and awesome running community here in Utah; and to be part of the greater running community (including the fastrunning bloggers here). Running has greatly contributed to who I am and my quality of life. I'm truly blessed. | 