Twas one of those great running afternoons. It was tempo day today and since the last two I did were 5-milers, I thought instead of going up again, I’d do a faster 4-miler just for fun.

Before I went out, I reread portions of Daniels’ Running Formula online (thanks to the ole Electronic Resources my library offers). The first thing I wanted to check on was warmups, since I am forever stuck in the beginning runner’s head of “if I do too much warmup, won’t that steal from my remaining energy and make me tired sooner?” but as I read the pages on warming up, I started to see the light. Especially when he asks (paraphrasing here) that when you do intervals, don’t you usually feel better after the 2nd or third one? Why yes, Jack Daniels, I do!

So today, instead of doing my usual one-mile warmup for tempo and then bing, jumping into tempo pace, I did a two mile warmup with the last mile gradually speeding up, so the tempo pace was less of a shock to the system. Very good, I liked it.

Tempo over and it’s time to implement another Daniels suggestion, adding in strides during cooldown.

Now, reading that I thought, “What the?? I’m going to be too pooped to do strides, not to mention I’ll have done that extra warmup mile so I’ll probably be super-pooped right there”, but no – ole Dr. Daniels knows his stuff. The strides actually “woke me up” during the cooldown, gave my legs a little energy back. Seems totally antithetical but there you have it.

So I’m feeling happy and strong right now, so much so that I finally ordered Daniels’ Running Formula from Amazon because it’s really the last important running book missing from my library and nothing beats a hard copy. I also ordered Running Within, less life and death but worthy of owning and more importantly, it qualified me for free shipping.

Next on the agenda? Taking a stroll to Whole Foods to buy some good rolls…we’re grilling hamburgers tonight. Spring is in the air!

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