Back to pre-injury volume this week with 90 miles.  It also marks my first week incorporating doubles as a regular thing, which I loved, so 10-11 runs/week will be the norm until summer.

Even though the mileage is the same, twice-a-days are decidedly different from singles.  Despite the luxury of shorter runs, your day is actually more about running since you have a standing afternoon appointment with the pavement.  This might be a novelty factor that wears off eventually but it does feel like a larger commitment to the sport.  It’s as if me and Running had been dating but now we’re engaged.

It’s great though, I’m getting to bed at a more reasonable hour, the scale is dropping and I feel more adaptable.  For example, I’ve always run when the weather sucks the least, so in winter that meant afternoons exclusively.  But a pre-breakfast run on a frosty morning turns out to be a fine way to start the day, especially when countered by a warmer afternoon run.  You get to see the park changing outfits and personalities as the day progresses.

Anyway, the extra effort of getting dressed and out there twice doesn’t bug me as I thought it would.  My two other preconceived complaints also ended up being moot – mostly because it turns out I’ve no compunction about being a dirty pig.

That is to say, I always thought running twice/day meant you had to take 2 showers and do twice the laundry.  But unless I have somewhere I need to be between runs, I just dry off and sit in my filth (which isn’t real filth, maybe a tad salty but I don’t smell).  And since most of my runs are half the distance they used to be, I’m cool with wearing most of my stuff twice before washing.  Rule: As long as it doesn’t stink, it can have another run.

So here begins a new running experiment (doubles) and a continuation of the one I began last summer (mileage).  Needless to say, I’m excited to see what comes of it.  I expect good things ahead.

A Doubly Good Week In Review
All easy stuff, though a couple runs had some fartlek or a few faster miles.  It’s a relief to find my paces returning to normal, I figure a couple more weeks should do it.

More shoes and a PureFlow coda
Running Warehouse has a great sale on racing flats (20% off) that ends today so check out the offerings. The prices are so good I ordered a couple models I’ve been curious about: the Asics Hyper Speeds and the Saucony Fastwitch 5s.  I plan on using them both as regular training shoes since the Adios’ worked so well in that regard.

Speaking of, I really do still love my Adidas Adios’ so despite my dissing the awful new color scheme and major design revamp I’ll probably order a pair of the new version, but only after the price goes down.

A final word on the PureFlows: I mentioned how they’d been said to be slippery in wet/snowy conditions so I took them out on a rainy run this week.  I had great traction on the asphalt bike path so I thought people might have been overreacting…until I ran under a couple bridges and felt some serious slippage.  I’m not sure why, it was the same bike path asphalt on a warm day (so nothing was frozen and I avoided the tar repair spots) but it happened twice.  So I’ll wear them in the rain, being careful under bridges, but if it snows, forgetaboutit, I’ll use another shoe.

13 Responses to “Double Talk”