As my writing here slows, so usually does my running. About 2 weeks ago my work and music life got a lot busier, both good but time consuming. All it takes is about a week of not running to start me obsessing about my weight as well as a reduction in the fitness benefits I am amassing in regards to treating ms. The weight thing has been building all summer and I have put on 10 or so pounds since winter, the exact oposite of what my usual seasonal patterns have been. I have enjoyed the extra fat for injections though. So while I can’t really say I have stopped my running malaise this year, today I did the fourth run in four days which I have always felt is a good restart. I think if gives me a sense of pattern acceptance in my workouts. I’ve also been pretty successful with not eating at night. So in general I feel pretty good with the exception of my tingly feet.
Sp today’s run was not only the fourth in a row, but I ended with a quality long slow distance run. It’s the first one in quite a while. It feels good to be exhausted. And I have been refueling/rehydrating pretty well this evening, and more food on the way! It was one of those runs where I had no real plan. But as I kept making route decisions leading me further along, I knew what it would be a good day for an lsd run. Actually I didn’t keep my heart rate low enough to be a good lsd run, more of a base run pace. I had several points where I started to fade and then pushed hard through them. I thought that was a good success, almost as good as getting home. It felt really good to finish.
The other three runs were two back-to-back base 10k runs and a short recovery run. I ran the two base runs pretty fast, I think the break was probably good for me. They were pretty boring but one weird thing did happen. I ran into the same dreadlocked reed student running in the canyon at exactly the same spot along the north trail. The recovery run felt good, really more of a slowish 5 miles than recovery. But I think the effects were pretty similar considering how well today’s long run went.