I haven’t gotten a chance to blog my Friday night run. I wanted to limit my time out that evening, because we were driving to Pittsburgh first thing in the morning, and it was getting dark fast. So rather than running out to Martinsville and doing my pacework where I’m used to doing it, I ran an old 2 mile route (the one I used when I first started running!), and did it twice. I managed all 4 miles in about 50 minutes. I should have been faster but I had eaten to close to running and it was freezing, so my blood wasn’t at all sure where my body wanted it, in my legs for work, my hands for warmth or in my stomach for peanut butter.
Eventually my legs felt fine, but my hands were freezing for the first half and my stomach never settled. I kept setting those micro-goals you set when you aren’t sure how to get through something. “Just to this road. Once I’m halfway around I’ll just finish this lap. Run by the house; then all you have to do is make it half a mile away and it’s silly to turn around.” It worked, but it’s more mental effort than I’ve had to put in on a run in forever. Damned winter.
Weirdest part is that mile 2 took almost 14 minutes. The other miles were about 12 apiece. Still, the average was fast enough, and an outlying mile is actually more encouraging to me than had the whole thing been slow.
Wisely and Slow 