Sometimes I tend to overthink things a bit too much!!!

Yep, no doubt about it.

This is pretty much how I decided my training plan for this week due to some changes to our schedule.

Hang on to your hat, because I am all over the place. hehehehee. This is a great example of how I think and my thought process – it ain’t for everyone, but it seems to work for me…well most of the time, even if it is a bit convoluted.

So today I needed to think about my normal running routine and how it fits with those schedule changes. Since I will be doing an easier 6.0 miles or so (I think) on Wednesday, plus on the way home I usually stop in Portland and also do the Back Cove loop just too keep the legs semi-loose, use the blue box and enjoy the run. Which meant that I really do not want to do hard 1/2 mile repeats – speed workout on Tuesday.

Also the weather was fairly nice outside today for running, mid 50’s, a slight breeze and I had decided to run from the Augusta Planet Fitness. Even as I headed out the door, I still didn’t have a clue what kind of workout I was going to actually do. Well other than I was going to run at least 6.0 miles.

At that point, I decided in my infinite wisdom to get my arse in gear, see how I felt and wing it.

Mondays are generally an easy/recovery day from Sunday’s long run. Well, I didn’t do a long run yesterday, so I had some extra energy pulsing through the old body for a change.

The first mile was fine, everything felt good and I was heading into the wind, which meant I got to dream about that nice tailwind I could take advantage of on the way back. I call it motivation to get through a section that wasn’t that much fun.

However, a possible plan for the was starting to form in my mind about how to get my runs, workouts, and miles in this week. However, the winds got a bit stronger during mile 2.0 and I decided to pull back a bit on the effort level.

During mile 3.0 I got into the hill and did the same thing that I did yesterday going uphill I worked on lifting my knees and did not let myself get into my old man shuffle up the small hill by the barbershop. It did help and I knew that my pace was a bit quicker. When I got out to Summerhaven Road my watch told me it was 3.0 miles and time to turn around.

After about 100 yards with the wind at my back, I had pretty much figured out how to adjust my training this week to minimize or is that maximize the changes that were coming my way.

Cccchhhanges

Tuesday – Easy day

Wednesday – I will be heading to Portsmouth to meet with a friend for a mid-morning run and lunch, and yes, I am really looking forward to it. I also have a feeling that I might sneak a run around Back Cove on the way home.

Thursday – Run easy in the morning and then we get to do a Berlin, NH flip/flop to attend a funeral wake that afternoon. Drive back home late that night.

Friday – Who knows, but I am believing it will be a day off from running.

Saturday – Long run or do it on Sunday if I am still to beat up from the driving.

Sunday – Easy something

See I told you I would get it figured out. I just took the round-about way to get there and had to dig myself out of a couple of rabbit holes first.

Getting back to today’s run

Once I decided all that, the rest of today’s run was going to be a comfortably hard progression run with a faster last full mile. Not quite at race pace, but a faster pace than I usually do outside. This would be my speedwork session instead of my usual Tuesday treadmill repeats. Which would become an easy run day in preparation for the Portsmouth/Portland run(s) that I love so much (I really do enjoy them).

Coming back down Outer Civic Center Drive was good and I really thought that I was running well. I felt strong and in control from the light at the Commerce Center to the finish at Planet Fitness. I even remembered to work on keeping my arms closer to my body and pushing harder back with the elbows, while running with a slight forward lean.

The reality is that

Sometimes you just have to look at the week ahead, get the thinking cap on, run a little to figure things out, get outside the box we tend to get into, be a bit flexible and make changes that make sense for the variables that you have control of.

Yes, it helps that is mostly downhill from the Commerce Center and a day with the wind at my back too, doesn’t happen all that often, so I did take advantage of it.

That is how I got to run a pretty decent progression run today. Just a bit of a convoluted process but I got it done.