A good running start to 2009

I planned to skip exercise yesterday in support of my resolution to do one rest day a week. I even thought about it as a good bookend to the beginning of 2008 when I wasn't running. However, I gave in and ran about 1.25 miles after dinner. Despite the short distance it was an extremely taxing run, I had a lot of cramping, probably due to running after eating a full meal. Earlier in the day I was talking to a friend who came by about the benefits and liabilities of training every day. This friend is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist® (CSCS®) who teaches high school students about training, nutrition and physiology. He told me that there is no right strategy for training but that I should listen to my body. If I'm exhausted I should not train. If I have energy there's no reason to skip a run. The point is that a person can recover overnight provided that the day's effort was at a recoverable level. I'd expect that anything over 5 miles for me would require more than an overnight recovery at this point in my training. This morning I ran 3.7 miles at a 9:31 overall pace. I was happy with that and I felt very strong up until the end. I could have easily run another 15 minutes but I want to run tomorrow and didn't want to overdo it.

My poll to collect preferences for what the Emerging Runner should cover has closed. Motivation and running technologies came up most often (although with 5 responses it's not exactly statistically significant). But for those who chose to vote, thank you. I will concentrate more on those areas.

I hope everyone had a great New Years and are planning to do some great running in 2009!