This morning Mary and I were walking on Bennie’s long walk – it was absolutely gorgeous outside. Mid 60’s, bright sunshine, low humidity and a light breeze and I decided that I didn’t feel like running on the hills around the house after yesterday’s long run.
Which meant that I had a choice of running in Waterville or running in Waterville, since I ran in Augusta yesterday. I know that I had said that I would like to do a second trail run during the week, but since I changed my long runs to Thursday and Fridays are now a rest day. I didn’t feel like running trails today – also it would have meant running hills and the legs didn’t need that this morning.
So I went to Waterville, what an original idea – right!!! 🙂
One thing I did differently today was wear my Skechers GoRun Ride 7’s Gray – for the second time. I haven’t been totally happy with the Topo Ultra Fly’s on my long runs and wanted to see if the GRR7’s felt any better.
My training plan called for an easy 5.0 miles as a recovery run from yesterday’s long run. I had a nice route picked out that only had one hill that is more long than steep, so it is a good workout without getting into the steep stuff.
Also for the first time in a long time I wore ear buds and listened to music while running outside. I will say that makes quite a huge difference in how I run.
I started out slowly and listened to some pop music for the first mile, just to get warmed up. About the same time I hit mile 2.0 some other music started and I just fell into the beat and without trying went under 8:00’s. Now that is not really a recovery pace for me. When I see a 7 in the front of the mile pace, I am moving along pretty good for me on a training run.
After that I hit a few bumps and purposely slowed down a bit – after all it was supposed to be a recovery run. Even going along Silver Street, I kept up a pretty good pace, but once I got back on Violette, I started to slow down. The legs were tired and I didn’t want to be completely stoopid about running super fast or hard on a recovery run, even if I was feeling pretty damn good.
I think the combination of listening to the right music and running in the GRR7’s really made a big difference in my running today. I won’t say that it will be the correct combination for every run, but it does make me think differently about how I might use music as a part of my running – outside.
The GRR7’s didn’t start to bother my left Achilles or ankle area, so for next week’s long run, I am planning on wearing them for my long run to see how they work/feel. I am hopeful that they are part of the answer to my being able to run longer distances without my left leg giving me too many issues.
One thing I do know is that the longer my long runs get, the more I eat after them.
Last night I got a bad case of the rungry’s and ate just about everything that I could get my hands on. Hell I even bought a Coke and whoopie pie on the way home, to enjoy while watching the NBA draft and continued to keep eating throughout most of the evening.
I enjoy watching where those young men will start their professional basketball careers. I especially like to see who the Celtics draft what look at their eyes to see if the joy of being drafted is real. I have been a Boston Celtic fan since the late 60’s and while I don’t watch or follow as much as I used to this is something that I do enjoy watching since it has been televised.
It has been a good day and I was happy with last night Celtics draft. Now to figure out the that will work well for me on my long runs and watch the Celtics summer league to see how their draft pick looks.
Everything does look pretty promising this morning. Now to get to doing the hard work that is going to be necessary to get where I want to be in the Fall. A lot like the Celtics first round pick Robert Williams, Jr. has to work hard too to be a Celtic.
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