Sunshine, Robins, and Puppies

I had an easy two mile run today. I had to do it around the school where I teach, which once again was interesting for a few reasons on which I'll elaborate later. It was a beautiful day for a run, and it turned out to be a beautiful run, too.

First, I've got to gripe about running shorts briefly. Who invented the key pocket inside the front liner? I've got a dilemma here -- although there are a few other areas for keys (pockets, velcro pouches, etc.) on my shorts, that inside pouch feels the safest. My keys surely can't bounce out there! The problem is when you get back from a run and need to retrieve the keys. There's something about digging around in the front of my shorts outside a door to the school building where I work that just seems like a bad idea. I'm going to have to keep this mind and find a better solution for next time I run at school.

It was the first run of the year where I could wear shorts and a short-sleeve T-shirt. I ended up with a stocking cap on because I forgot my billed cap, but otherwise it was beautiful. My legs felt a little leaden again at the beginning, but they loosened up. I haven't really experienced this before, and I'm wondering if it's because I stopped stretching before runs. I read that in a book that I'll talk more about on later posts. I don't know the reason, and frankly I'm not sure that I'm sold on not stretching beforehand yet.

I also saw several more signs of spring, an occurance I'm sure will be repeating itself ad nauseum over the next few weeks. I saw two robins on my run and one incredibly cute litter of puppies playing in a front yard. Not just any puppies. Fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand-with-giant-paw puppies. It's a good thing I'm broke or else we'd have a dog right now.

The nitty gritty of the run works out really well. I ran 2.31 miles in a total time of 25:15. My first half was run in a time of 12:50, which means I negative split by around 25 seconds. Yay! What's more, my average mileage was around 10:56 and the second half alone was 10:47. If you look back at my previous posts, you'll know that this is practically a blur for me.

I can see why runners are advised not to recite these types of statistics to uninterested parties. It can be addictive doing the math for how fast each stretch was!

I've got some training problems up and coming. First, I'm supposed to do 5 miles on Thursday. Unless I do them at 5:30 a.m., an idea that's not unheard of but also not likely, they won't get done that day. My other option is to do that run tomorrow night since I "only" ran two miles today. That means running two days in a row, which makes me nervous, but it seems like the more likely option for me actually doing it.

Second, I'm still trying to figure out how to get to my total of 6 miles on my weekend long run with the 5k on Saturday. Double up afterwards? Run twice in the day? Assume that a race pace will get me the extra exercise I need and call it a day? Who knows (besides the Shadow, that is.......)