Archive for December 27th, 2008

I hope you all had a great holiday week with as little family irritation as possible.

We escaped from the world for a few days with the most romantic, non-angst-ridden holiday I can remember.  The B&B we stayed at was empty, even the owners were gone, so we had the place completely to ourselves. Christmas day we went to the “Grand Canyon of PA”  (that cracks me up every time I type it), hiked in the snow a little and happily froze our asses off because it was so beautiful and serene.   I was this close to having a 3-day non-running vacation, but ended up doing a 4-miler yesterday morning before we left, just to add Wellsboro, PA to my list of places I’ve run.

Back to Philly and running life, something strange has been going on with my running this last week.  I suppose it’s the culmination of those weeks of speedwork and tempos in conjunction with races (can’t beat 5Ks for speedwork) because all of a sudden, my “normal” easy pace has taken a dive.

I did that 5K last Saturday, then the next day I ran 9 miles, avg pace 8:29.  Tuesday I ran 12, avg pace 8:31.  Today I ran 13, avg pace 8:29.  And each of these runs started the first couple miles with 8:40s, the bulk of the runs averaged around 8:15/mi.  They felt comfortable, not strenuous at all, so I’ve been doing quite a few double-takes looking at my wrist.  If I hadn’t been running  my usual measured route, I’d think my Garmin had gone batty.

But there’s more to these runs than a new pacing, I had actual bouts of Runner’s High on Tuesday and today.  It occurred to me that maybe the high is due to getting faster (big wad of happiness right there) but it’s more than that, it’s an amazing feeling, like dancing all out or fucking, for that matter.

It’d probably be a good idea to wear the HR monitor on tomorrow’s 9-miler, but on the other hand, what makes it special is how it feels and monitoring my HR will surely put a damper on it (because of course, it must be too fast…McMillan’s finger is probably cramped from wagging it at me).  Then again, the monitor and McMillan are all about “proper aerobic conditioning”.  Must every second of running be the best possible science?

OK, so I hereby declare that my Christmas present to myself is to leave the rulebook at home until mid-January when the new training cycle begins.  Just run because it feels good, whatever that may be.  Belated, as far as gifts go, but perfect for someone who likes to get high.