February 2, 2008

Saturday, February 2, 2008
About 8.5 miles in about 72 minutes. It was warm and comfortable today, about 30 degrees, humid, with little wind. I tossed my hat and gloves in the car before I even left the driveway, and was perfectly comfortable, too warm even, for the entire run. I wasn’t sure how far I’d go. I cleaned the house all day (mainly dusting and vacuuming), then watched the Millrose games on the telly from 3 to 4. I stretched during the last 15 minutes of the meet and got out the door by 4:05. My legs felt a little stiff and sore, so I thought I might just turn back at the two mile mark and call it an easy 4.0. But by two miles I was feeling warmed up, and the next half mile section of road was nearly level, so I decided to go out another 4:15 (the first two miles were 8:32 and 8:34, for 21:22 out), turn around and call it 5 miles. The half mile split back was 4:39, followed by 7:47 and an uphill 7:59 (20:24 in). By then, I had been humping it pretty good to try and get that last mile in under 8 minutes (OK, OK!!! I stopped the watch a second early. I lied. It was only 8:00, maybe even 8:01. I’m still rounding it to 7:59), so after I took off the reflective vest and my windbreaker, I decided to go out for a little cooldown jog. Maybe .4 miles or so. But the instant I started out, I knew that wouldn’t do at all. It felt so nice and cool without the jacket, and it felt so good to be running nice and easy, I had to go farther. I decided to go out the other direction to the one mile mark, which just happens to be the top of the crest, with the 360 degree vistas. So I go out and back, then get back to the house, knowing it has now been 7.0 miles. Doing the math, (I had taken off my watch along with the vest and jacket), I figured I had been out about 59 minutes. If I’m going to run 59 minutes, I might as well run an hour. So I keep going, past the house again, to do the .2 out and back to the end of the road for an extra .4 miles. But then I think, if I’m going to run 7.4, I might as well run 8 and make it my long run, so I turn right at the end of the road. Then I take the first (and only) right after that. I’ve never been on this road before. It’s nice. Hey, there’s another road going off to the right. I’ve never even known this road existed! Now I’m almost 8 miles out, and running away from my house exploring a back country road I’ve never seen before just as it is getting dark. This is the kind of thing I love about running – exploring. So call it 5.0 miles in 41:46, about a minute rest, then about 3.5 miles in about 30 minutes. No. That doesn’t count as a double workout. But it sure was fun.