Chilly Morning

I decided to run back home at the parents house for a couple days. I'm trying to keep my runs different and therefore relatively fresh. I don't want to get tired of them before the marathon itself.

Today, I ran around some new houses on the opposite of the elementary school from my parents house. It was incredibly cold. I really hate running in the cold. Mainly because I can't stand the uncomfortable feeling early on. Just walking over there made my hands ice cold in the 49 degree weather.

I began running at about 6:15. I probably should've started later with the cold weather. It took most of the run until I warmed up. I was blowing on my hands quite often. I still went out in a short sleeve shirt and shorts. I wanted to add a long sleeve shirt, but couldn't find one here.

The neighborhood has a bunch of dead end roads so I just had to run to the end of those and back. I encountered a lot of middle school/high school kids that were waiting for the bus on their way back. Overall, the route was quite boring and dull.

I ran through the neighborhood at what I thought was a decent pace. I didn't push much, but thought my time would be better, especially without the heat. I ran behind the school and finished in my parents neighborhood. The course was actually disappointing in that it had no hills. I probably won't run there again until they extend the neighborhood more.

I've been reading a lot lately. I read a book about the first 100 years of the Boston Marathon. I also got through Running Times magazine. This all in the course of two days. I love reading about running right now and I'm trying to soak up everything I can. Reading about so many successful runners is inspiring me.

I really am eager to run and look forward to every day's route. I can't wait to get out the door in the morning. That's obviously a good sign that I'm training well. It will certainly get be through my first marathon. I just feel that with so much time on my hands right now, I should be doing more. I'm thinking more and more about adding an easy bike ride or two in the evenings. That won't stress legs, but will add strength. Maybe I should just stay with the current program until at the least the halfway point and then see how I feel. It just seems too easy right now.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do the old Red Bridge run that I did once or twice in high school. It goes up the huge hill of the Schoeneck route, but adds another loop. That should be a nice and difficult 6 mile mid week run. Even if I run them differently, I definitely should focus just as much on the easy 3 mile days like today. It's hard not to focus on the longer runs though, especially the weekend ones. I probably shouldn't even look at the runs beyond the next one on the schedule.

3.12 miles - 25:34 (8:12 pace)