January 23rd: Making Up for Missed Miles

At least someone got some exercise yesterday!

Well, I toldja I wouldn't get a run in yesterday, and I was right. The prospect of spending 45 minutes shoveling in 5 degrees at 6:15 in the morning just to get to the gym by 7:00 really wasn't enough to get me going. So I stuck with Plan B.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I simply added 2 miles to that run and to this morning's, for 6 miles each time. Unlike on Tuesday, however, I tried to maintain a slower pace this morning. For the first 4 miles, I ran at a 9:40 pace. Then I went up one tenth, to a 9:31. At 4.5, I cranked it up for real, doing 8:57 for a while and then finishing off at an 8:33 pace for the last half or so.

This jibes with a lot of what I've been reading -- do most of your miles relatively slowly to help your muscles recover and build, and then if you want to hit it hard, do that at the end. It also jibes with my new-found desire for negative splits. But it does take discipline. When everything in you is saying "GO!!!!" it's hard to hold back.

I'm also going to rave a little more about my new shoes. THEY ARE AWESOME!!! I can't believe the difference in how my legs feel. The real test, of course, comes on Saturday's long, which will be at least 12 miles (and probably on the belt -- yuck).

Total miles since starting the blog: 264.8