Forward

Well earned rest this morning. No yoga, just guilt free rest. Actually, back in February I planned to take this entire week as a break from running, and it seems to fit since I don’t have any immediate goals. Those are something I’ve thought a lot about lately. Goals, and perspective, both things I tend to lose sight of in the moment. Some would turn to a psychological or chemical diagnosis of this tendency, whereas I tend to think it’s mostly just a product of our (or my) post-post-industrial digitized lifestyle. Ones and zeros.

Anyway, I’ve learned a lot about myself and this sport in the past 9 months. The good thing about yesterday is that it gives me a clear benchmark of my fitness level. I can point to periods of the past and ascertain how different types of training affect me. I’m thinking the best thing I can do right now is just be consistent. I’ll be focusing on a fall marathon, but this is a long time away. Now I just need miles. Not beating myself into record high-mileage weeks – I found out in January and February that I’m capable of more than I’d imagined, but for the next couple months I don’t want to “walk the knife’s edge” so to speak. Just steady, patient miles, not all easy, but not all hard. And fine tuning my strength workouts. I’ve come up with some key workouts and spring races I’d like to do, but I expect that only a few of these will involve all-out efforts. And, as I don’t like absolutes, instead of no running this week, I’m just gonna run when I feel like it.

Monday Recap

3/3 – 6.25 mi / 52:55
3/4 – 4.7 mi / 36:14
3/5 – 5 mi / 41:25
3/6 – PM yoga
3/7 – 4.2 mi / 31:21
3/8 – AM yoga
3/9 – AM yoga, Caesar Rodney HM / 1:30:37

Short and sweet running week with some excellent yoga. 33 ¼ miles, 7:36 overall pace. First week in a while that I didn’t ride any miles. Legs are sore from yesterday but surprisingly not that bad. Knees feel excellent in spite of all that downhill pounding. Worst is the hip flexors (esp. left), and that’s from the uphills. Feeling good, and looking forward to spring.