Sunday, April 19, 2009

Weekend runs

Nothing special about the last two runs and yet everything was special.

Saturday morning -- sunny skies and 60 degrees at 8:30 a.m. Just a beautiful day for a nice longer, slow run. I started off with my .75 mile walk just to loosen up and get ready. Started off running nice and slowly. Really planned to run 11:30 miles. First mile just about dead on at 11:26. After that I kept speeding up by 15 to 30 seconds per mile. I have to always remind myself to slow down and build my aerobic capacity. More importantly, I just want to slow down to feel my Chirunning form all the more. It's easier to pick up on areas that need work by slowing down than at a faster pace.

Had planned to run a mile on the track with the rest on the road, but I've been feeling so good, I decided to do all four miles on the road. I'm glad I did. It felt great and I found my body is doing very well on the road. I could have gone another mile or two but I am really trying to be strict with myself on how much I increase my mileage per week (only a quarter to half mile per week on the longer runs. I have my whole life to get my mileage back up.)

It felt so good to run and breathe easy and feel relaxed on the road. What a treat.

This morning I got up early for me at 6:30 and was out the door by 7 for a little "recovery" run. Planned on going 2.25 but I felt so good, I allowed myself to do 2.5. I know, I know, I just said I'm being strict with myself about my mileage increases and since I increased a half yesterday (on my longer run) I should have only increased .25 for today's. But at least I let my body tell me what it wanted not the other way around. And if on my next run, my body tells me to do only 2.25, I will.

Weather was great with temps near 60 and mostly cloudy. Other plusses for the two runs:

No struggle. Just concentrating on making it easy.

No aches or pain.

Maybe this morning's experience will help me start running in the mornings.

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