It finally happened. For the first time since mid-January, every run this week was outside. Sunday I ran in shorts! This felt impossible just a week or two ago, but sure enough, spring is on its way.
Unfortunately, that means Daylight Saving Time is back, so my morning runs are now an hour darker and my commutes are once again directly into the sun. I have a very strong opinion that we should be in Standard Time all the time. People need sunlight in the morning because they need to get to work, get to school, and get things done before they go to either of those places, and they need to do all that safely. Being able to play yard games at 8:30 at night for a few weeks in July isn’t worth that trade.
Aside from our obvious mismanagement of the clock at a societal level, this week was pretty good. Higher temperatures and lower mileage will really lift the spirit!
Monday: Off.
Tuesday: 4 miles easy, but not as slow as I’d like. It’s way harder to run 8:30s outside than on the treadmill. I want to keep in touch with those blessedly easy recovery miles as I head into peak mileage. Core at lunch.
Wednesday: 4 miles easy. Wis and I were both feeling banged up from 22 on Sunday, and the track wasn’t clear, so we decided to bide our time and push this week’s workout to Saturday. Strength at lunch.
Thursday: 8 miles at MLR effort. This didn’t feel great; my left knee has been bugging me this week. Still, I hit my paces and got it done. I’m counting on the steep drop in volume this week to eventually give me a boost.
Friday: 5 miles. Jogged out to the track to confirm that yes, for the first time since December, the track was clear. We were clear for takeoff.
Saturday: 6 x 600 @ 5K pace (2:04 average) with 90 seconds rest. Ran this one with Wis and we traded reps. It was great to have the company. This felt pretty good aerobically, but my legs were rusty at this pace. Still, we had plenty in the tank and it was nice to turn it over a bit after a long winter on the treadmill.
Sunday: 16 miles. Joined up with some friends for the middle miles, then dropped down to MLR effort for a couple miles before hitting the last mile around marathon pace. This felt good but I was tired after.
This Week: 45 miles. This took a while to set in, and I’ve still got some aches and pains to sort out, but I feel energized and ready for another push. Three big weeks coming up, and then we sharpen up with the taper.
Baby: My son is getting closer to walking and talking all the time. Just the other day he started babbling in a whole new way, with new sounds and inflection. It seems like there are now some patterns and associations to it, like he is closing in on his first few words. The leaders in this race seem to be “dis” (this), “dat” (that), “nana” (banana), “Dada”, “Mama”, and “moo” (moo). We will see which one he can reliably use first! He is also getting pretty good at the signs for “more” and “all done”, and also waving—though he is shy.
Just when you think you are hitting a plateau, and you get comfortable with what your child can do, another explosion of new skills seems to start right on schedule. The only thing you can count on is that everything is changing all the time.
theDNF 
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