Well at least it didn't rain

Today's run (street): 2.4 miles at 9:50

I lucked out this morning because my window of running coincided with a break in the rain. I feared that with all the overnight rain I'd be forced back onto the treadmill. The streets were wet but the skies were clear when I set out at 4:05 AM. Although I work to avoid repetitious activities I do tend to follow the same pattern on my morning runs. I mix in different loops each time I go out but I usually follow the same basic course. I do this for practical reasons. With only about 25 minutes to run, I need to time the activity so that no matter how far I go I've got enough time to return within my designated workout period. More than once I've made the mistake of losing track of the time and have found myself a mile away with only 5 minutes left in my workout window. Only an elite could have pulled that off and I am far from that these days.

I know Saturday was a tough run and my slower than desired pace could be explained somewhat by the conditions. Sunday was a recovery run and I wasn't even thinking about how fast I ran it. Today I hoped to get back on track. I went out with a goal of covering 2.6 to 2.8 miles within my time span and I took a completely different route than usual. My energy level wasn't near where it should have been, but I thought I was moving along well. Without running my measured mile for my first loop I felt out of sync not knowing (without looking at the Garmin) when I'd passed that distance. It seemed to take longer to get there than it should have and I knew that meant I was running slow. My form felt sloppy, and while I had been considering running the South Bay 10K next weekend, I decided that I wasn't up to racing again so soon. Along the way I must have completely zoned out because I found myself in a different place than I expected to be at a certain point and was disappointed that my distance was falling short of my goal. I finished up and tried to understand why today's run was so underwhelming.

Some runs are just like that I guess. I probably need more than one day's rest and I may take Thursday off this week instead of doing my elliptical session. I'm not going to race on Saturday but I'm hoping to cover some distance. I want to run a 10 miler. Perhaps Saturday is the day for doing that.