Like Seeing an Old Friend

As I was driving to Valley Green this evening, I had the feeling of seeing an old friend. It had only been six days since I'd last run on Forbidden Drive, but it had been months since I'd run there in the evening. Although the sky was overcast, I could sense, since it was about 7 p.m., that it was late in the day. Temperatures were in the mid-to-high 60s.

Tonight's was one of those runs I really need every once in a while to help me feel good again about running. Saturday's long run left me feeling discouraged, an unusual feeling for me after a run: I didn't even experience any satisfaction in the past perfect. I also hadn't run at all this week, so I needed the run just to help me cope with some stress in my life. This run fit the bill.

I ran a little more than six miles, and I followed a somewhat unusual route for me. I left Valley Green and ran 1-1/2 miles toward Lincoln drive before turning around, running 3 miles in the opposite direction, and returning to my starting point. The highlight of the run came when, approaching mile 4, the cloud cover began to lift and I could see the blue sky. The small amount of extra sunlight, even if not direct, was a welcome companion during the last quarter of my run.

I did try something different tonight: since the middle of last summer, I had been taking frequent one-minute walk breaks while running, but tonight I decided to run the last 10 minutes or so without a break. In order to pace myself, I focussed on keeping my heart rate at or below about 165 bpm (which I can maintain comfortably), and, surprisingly, I found that my pace was below 9:30/mile. I was surprised that I ran so much faster without the walk breaks. I guess  it's time for me to experiment with a different strategy for running and walking.