Hello. How 'bout that ride in?

An interesting thing has happened over the past month. I have been feeling a little younger every couple of runs. It feels good to be at a point I havent been at in over two years. I am reminded of a part in once a runner when quenton (i think) is describing how you can never remember how it feels to race until you are actually racing. Well i am finding out the same goes for just running when you are starting to get into shape. The body becomes resilient. You can shift from tired to strong deep into a run. The mundane becomes profound. Ritual becomes life.

Another interesting thing happened yesterday on my run. I ended up with a random blood stain on my shirt. I was getting ready to do some drills before my strides when I realized there an unmistakable red spot on my shirt. After a number of attempts to figure where the blood originated, I gave up and gave credit to my nose (even though I have never had a bloody nose in my life).

Monday I added another mile to weekly pickup for a grand total of 2 miles! I headed down to the canal for a 9 mile run on a nice flat and soft surface. Unfortunately, it was extra soft on Monday as a result of some heavy rain. The run ended up going really well. I managed to hit 10:41 for my pickup after a fairly slow start. It took about 3 minutes before I really got comfortable and fell into a smooth and controlled tempo type effort. I will probably take next week off and move up to 3 miles the following week (sub 16 or bust...).

Slowly

I am starting to get into halfway respectable shape. I only ran 30 something miles last week to take it easy on my it band. I did manage to add a quick mile to the end of one of my runs, just to see where I was. I ended up hitting 5:37 with a gradual hill or two thrown in. Overall, it was good to get the legs turning over, but I did feel a little more pain than normal with my it band the next day.

I was planning on skipping the pickup this week, but I felt really good yesterday and decided to give it a go. The mile before the pickup, I ran 5:48, so I had a feeling that it would be a good bit faster than last week. I was right, as I came through the mile in 5:14 feeling strong. The best part was that my it band felt pretty good today. Now I just need to keep getting a little stronger each week and I might be ready to race one of these days.