Tonight I had one of those runs that made me really glad that I'm not training for anything right now. I had it in my mind that I would do somewhere between four and six miles when I got off of work, but it was sunny outside, and I missed one of the routes that I used to run a lot. So I threw on my stuff and headed out for 7.7 miles.
It was beautiful out. I haven't done too many runs outside since the weather turned really fall-like. I love the smell of fall, which is kind of weird because it smells a little bit like decay. But it reminds me of when I ran as a child, zigzagging through the grass in order to catch leaves that spiraled to the ground.
I ran through the 29 mph gusts of wind, I ran up the hills, I ran through the sunset and watched the sky streak pink, I dodged cars and only flicked off a couple of them. OH, and I encountered another friendly runner! She said, "You go girl!" as we passed each other. Corny, yes, but so nice.
And the best part of this run was that I maintained a pace under 10:00 (9:57). I'm well aware of the placebo effect that cold weather has on my interpretation of my fitness, but I'm going to take it. Sure, I'm faster than I was during the summer because my body doesn't have to work as hard to cool down. But let's just ignore all the words in that last sentence that follow "summer". Take the sugar pill and be happy. :)
So I need to remember these fun impulsive runs when I get the urge to plan out from now until next June. I now understand cyclical training. If you train all the time, if you maintain your ability to run 20 milers whenever, you get burned out. Fall back in love with running and drop the training schedule. :)
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