Getting Fresh Again

Spent an hour on the treadmill today, going at a moderate to easy pace but trying not to lock into a steady, unwavering pattern.  My main goal was simply to get some easy work on the legs to get them out of their delayed onset muscle soreness left over from Sunday.  I'm still feeling a little of the All Day 25K, so I wanted to shake things out a little.  I kept the pace relatively easy, working in a half dozen strides over the course of the hour at various intervals, but mostly keeping things down around an 8:30 minute/mile pace or so.

Felt pretty good.  I'd like to try to get to around 30 miles that way, spending anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen, accumulating relatively easy miles leading up to this weekend's long run.  The only heavy work I'd like to do would be some hill time tomorrow.  I canceled out the plan to incorporate some spin classes into the week's cross training mix.  I do still want to spend a little time in the pool and work on weights, but with time being at a premium, I need to focus on the running legs and see if I can't ease back into a program of gradually increasing my mileage.  I've been on a mileage plateau for several weeks now, having put on the breaks due to longer recovery times and worry about tendinitis.  I think backing off on the throttle has helped.  The test will be this week and how well I can handle inching past the 20 mile mark in a single run and pressing up on 50 miles for the week.

I was browsing through the photos of the elite invitation race of the Carlsbad 5000.  I've discovered the so-called "Joy of Running" myself, finally after over 30 years of running for fitness.  But still, I don't think I've ever displayed it like this:

 That's Kenya’s Eluid Kipchoge in the orange, on his way to winning the men's invitational in 13:11.  Just check out the look on his face.  Why can't I smile that way?