Two Days in a Row=Back on Track

"Get up, get back on your feet" Styx: Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)

Another "runnable" day. Today's weather was 40 degrees, and even though it had rained earlier and was dreary outside, I was ready to rock(listen to my mp3 player) n' run. By the way, I've decided that unless it's a big difference between the actual temperature and the "feels like" temperature, I won't bother mentioning it. Due to assorted aches and pains still being felt from yesterday's run, plus the fact it's supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow, I decided that 4 miles would be the perfect distance to run. Tomorrow's run will definitely be longer if indeed it is 60 degrees. I decided on my favorite 4 mile course (surprise), which as I've mentioned several times previously, is also the first 4 mile route I created over 2 years ago. It's challenging enough, with uphills and downhills, but no "killer hills." Best of all, like all my street runs, it starts and finishes near my house. I didn't have Stephanie to keep me company, since she decided that the gym was her workout of choice today. I must mention that for the past month or so, I have not used energy gels or energy drinks to "enhance" my performance. I have finally realized and admitted that 1) I still run well without them, and 2) They're expensive, and right now I have a lot more important things to spend my money on. It remains to be seen if I go back to using them again. The gels are usually available during longer distance races, so I know I'll grab them as I'm running. I'll take any "lift" I can get, whether psychological or real during longer race runs. As you've seen by earlier posts, I swear by the Hammer Nutrition products, so at some point I'll probably purchase them again. Okay, back to today's run. Fortunately we've had a lot of rain since the snowstorm, so most of the snow is gone, and the roads are clear. Therefore, I don't have the "road pizza" fear at this time. Plenty of room for me and the vehicles on the road to coexist peacefully. Mile splits today were 8:29, 8:24, 8:16, and 7:43, for a total of 32:52, or an average pace of 8:13 per mile. I really wanted Santa to bring me a Garmin, but that wasn't possible, so I still do my splits the old fashioned way, meaning looking at my Casio wristwatch every mile, and memorizing the times. Yes, there's an easier way to get the split times on it, but I've yet to look at the instruction manual and figure it out. I've been doing it this way for two years, so why change? Overall, I didn't like the "slowness" of my start, but am impressed with my time overall considering I'm just getting back into a regular running routine again. As I said earlier, it may hit 60 degrees tomorrow....unheard of on December 28 in Connecticut. My goal is to run wearing shorts, and of course to have FUN!!. I may run forever tomorrow.... although the new found pain on my left heel may change my mind.