The day after

Yesterday I escaped the shackles training for a marathon felt like to me. Today I began training for an upcoming half marathon. (The timing of this switcheroo was pure coincidence. I thought I'd have at least a week of junk miles to junk my way through before starting down a new road.) I was only required to run a glouriously short three miler. Because it's been weeks and weeks since any of my runs have been shorter than 5 miles I decided to see what kind of burners I had working for me, for while none of my recent runs have been under 5 miles even fewer of them have been run at paces under 9 minutes/mile.

What I discovered almost immediately was that running fast(ish) felt good. Really good. It's been a long time since I've felt that light on my feet right off the bat. It's been taking 15 minutes just for my legs to get into their groove. They've probably just been mad at me for throttling them down.

What I discovered next was that just letting go and not worrying about maintaining this pace or that speed had me feeling fresher after a couple miles than any run I've run in quite some time.

What I discovered as I finished up my run -- I made it to 3.13 miles because I wanted to run an even 25 minutes -- was that when you run for something you want to do, or because you like doing it, even when you're just about gassed you can breath a little deeper, your legs feel a little less fatigued and your determination is just a little bit stronger.

And finally, what I learned was that I am rejuvenated in my running. That's good.


I lurned stuff.
Also, I ran my first sub 8:00 pace run in forever. I was just barely under, but I was under. And I'll take it.