A well-beaten path

A well-beaten path does not always make the right road. - Proverb

I would love to continue discussing how I ended up planning for a marathon, my goals and ambitions; however, if I keep this up, I will never report upon my actual day-to-day running. Thus I'm jumping in before I completely draw a blank over my runs this weekend.

Friday Afternoon

I flew in on Thursday on a red eye flight from a business trip that didn't spare a minute for running. That meant that by Friday, it had been just over a week since I'd put on the trainers and hit the pavement. I was feeling motivated, however. A week without exercise makes me feel like I'm wading through a pit of mud. Which I suppose is better than last year when I returned home with the shin splints.

I wanted to ease back into my runs, as I typically do after periods of being sedentary. My plan was to kill two birds with one stone, one of my favorite activities and follow up my run with a trip to the grocery store. This means that I take a really out-of-the-way, winding route to the grocery store so that I can squeeze in around 4 miles before its time to start shopping.

Friday I chose to do an extension of my AM route. The extension meant following a major Rt. a half mile or so beyond my usual turn off in order to take me in a much wider loop. The road doesn't have a sidewalk on the eastern side of the road after my usual turn off, however. So I chose to run on the western side from the very beginning. Ha. The western side runs along a river that's quite distractingly pretty. I was also dodging puddles of melted snow and mud, which takes significant focus when you're not exactly roadside. In doing all this, I just kept following the running path...north. I managed to breeze right past the curve in the road I needed to take, skipping the intersection and just running off into the city next door.

Now I'm not entirely oblivious and realized the error of my ways about 4-5 blocks in. The roundabout I was expecting just didn't show up. So I looped around, gauged where I was and decided that the best plan was to take an adjacent road rather than retracing my steps, in hopes of encountering my original road further up. Yeah... I think you can see where this is going. It didn't go that way. I finally *did* find my way back and came out opposite my usual turn off, but it was an extra two miles that I didn't intend to run.

I still needed to go grocery shopping though, so I trudged on. It wasn't bad all-in-all. I mean, in the end, it was just a little under 6 miles. Not exactly an epic journey. But when you have your mind set on running a certain short distance, it makes you crabby. I do want to note that I had made this particular run two weeks before (without the detour) and tacking on those extra couple of miles really didn't change how I felt when it was over. I wasn't any more tired than previously.

Saturday went more smoothly

I actually planned on a slightly longer run for Saturday. 7 1/2 miles. It was a gorgeous day too. Around 40 degrees and sunny. A couple of laps around the pond was refreshing. The dirt path along the water's edge was a little icy/muddy still, so on my second lap I took the paved uphill version. I almost never do this because I'm lazy and avoid lengthier hills in favor of scary, short inclines. I also like the reprieve of running on hard-pack dirt over asphalt. Sure, there is a jogger-worn path alongside the paved walkway, but its never even and always full of runners.

Anyway, as I neared the end of my first lap (mile 5 or so) I was feeling really good and looked forward to the second lap. I was feeling a little thirsty though, and in the winter, the park services turn off the water fountains. I'll have to remember to drink up beforehand in the future, since its not quite the right temperature or distance for strapping on the fuel belt just yet. The last 1/4 mile was a little rough. It was a mental argument with myself, convincing myself that I was absolutely not going to walk the last 10 yards no matter how much my legs were whining and my feet were bitching over tiny pebbles in my shoes.

When it was over, it was a very short recovery. Which tells me that I probably could have slowed to a 20 yard walk and then picked up the pace again for another mile. Next weekend. Actually, next weekend I plan to head out to Bedford and go for the 10 mile route. Getting my sleep schedule back on track will be important this week as a result.

My calves have been a little sore the past two days. Sunday and this morning it snowed, so no outdoor jogs. Too much trouble at the moment. Today was lowerbody/core day at the gym, so I did get in a workout there. I spent the afternoon reading up on Pose Method running. I'll discuss this further once I can get a clear sidewalk to try it out on. No clinics or instructors in the area, so I'm going to give the videos a try. Crossfit employs the technique as well, so their videos have been a decent guideline as this point along with a number of drills.