Good Day

Today's run was a good run. Actually, all my runs over the past week have been good runs, but today's was especially strong. Finally, have my legs back under me.

Today's run didn't start as a good run. With New York's "length of day's" now being well under 10 hours (according to Weather Underground) and with pre-dawn temps in the 30s, I've rediscovered the gym in the past week. As much as I enjoyed being able to roll out of bed and head out the door over the summer, there is something nice about going to a place designed so that you can run, stretch, lift and do everything else you need for fitness. Because, let's face it, when I get home from a run to my apartment, I'm not going to stretch or do crunches -- I'm going to eat breakfast! So, along with the gym, I've also rediscovered free weights (my god! I've gotten weak over the summer!) and long ab workouts. And along with the free weights, I've rediscovered DOMS. I headed out this morning and about 50 feet into my 16 mile run, tripped over a cane stuck in the road and there was DOMS, leaning on that same cane and laughing at the corner. DOMS sauntered over, patted my pecs and with a sinister smirk said, "enjoy that." And as they started screaming at every arm swing, DOMS walked off whistling.

Fortunately, that only lasted about 2 miles, and (hopefully) the extra movement will make the pecs less sore for the rest of the day (hopefully). The rest of the run? Boy, oh boy! The first two miles were at 8:05/mile. 6 miles was at a 7:50 average. 10 miles? Now averaging 7:45. And for the last 6? Machine-like (except when being stopped at traffic lights) I blistered the average down to 7:37/mile (including traffic stops!). Four weeks out from MCM I finally feel like I have my legs back under me. This was a fantastic long run that turned into a progression run because it just seemed like the right way to go in the middle of running it.

THE PLAN
So, for Houston the plan is to finish 5 tomorrow to get this week to 41 and continue to build-up to re-peak at 55, which is where I peaked for MCM. In a couple weeks, I'm going to rehash the last 6 weeks of my MCM plan, with some exceptions. That's probably another post.

Today: 16 miles in 2:01:54 (7:37/mile)