Is it a trend?

I've been very sporadic in blogging in '07, which reflects my running (weekly-to-date: 0,5,16, 10*). However, this week . . . oh, glory, oh accomplishment . . . I'm going to break 30 miles. This strikes me as sufficient consistency to be worth blogging about (also, it's notable in that it'll also lead to a doubling of my miles for the year!)

So, how has this amazing accomplishment occurred? Well, for one, I've (re)discovered that when I'm only running 4 miles a pop, I don't have to get up at 5 am. Amazing! You don't have to allocate 2 hours to run only 28 minutes. Second, I've been routinely leaving the office by 8 to 9 pm. That may still seem late, but at only around 12 hours, it's completely within my tolerance range for outside activity. Third, after about 2 weeks, I really started to feel run-down, but in a completely different way than the run-down I feel while running at my most fatigued. Basically, I like the way I feel when I'm active and don't like the way I feel when I'm not -- even if I'm running a lot and feel exhausted. A few weeks off reinforced just how much I like busting out a 5 mile run.

One thing odd about my month off, is how much faster my runs have been on this return than they were during marathon training. I would have thought that after 4 weeks of almost nothing, I'd be running slower (or at least no faster) than I was at the end of last year. That's not even close. Here's this week so far:

• Tuesday -- 4.15 miles in 29:08 (7:01/mile on the Pulaski O&B).
  
• Wednesday -- 4.15 miles in 30:25 (7:20/mile over loose snow in McCarren Park).
  
• Friday -- 6.00 miles in 45:06 (7:31/mile in a gym that felt like Kenya. Seriously, it felt like running in July).
• Today -- 5.00 miles in 36:28 (7:18/mile on the Billy Bridge O&B, but a noticable headwind on the out (18:43) that was a tailwind on the back (17:45)).

I'm somewhat confused by this. Although I understand tapering, and I understand faster times on lower mileage, I really have done almost nothing in January and thought that it would be assured that when I got back to normal mileage I wouldn't be running at sub-7:20 (and, for the record, these runs are being run at the same effort as my 7:40-7:50s at year-end '06). Is this just from integration of fitness during my time off? Is this just from rested muscles? Should I expect these times to climb over the next couple weeks? Last year was my first really "serious" training period, so this was also my first lay-off. What should I be expecting?

*I'd planned more for the fourth week, but the Flyers annual dinner (including a big open bar) derailed those ambitions. But it was totally worth it. Heh heh.