I rest my case

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

Two day's of rest seemed to do the trick, and I had a decent run in the neighborhood this morning. Most of last week's runs were challenging and I'd hoped an extra day would help reset my system. Over the weekend I had some concern with a possible left knee injury, but my recovery plan seemed to work. The pain was gone this morning.

It was harder than I expected to get up and out this morning. Rest days can be seductive and it's always tempting to give in and take one more. I'm pleased to say that I rarely do that. When I do, it's because my body has told me to skip a workout. Today my body was imploring me to rest, but it was a half-hearted argument. Before I knew it, I was standing on my driveway waiting for my FR210 to acquire a signal.

The run itself was good, but not great. While my legs didn't feel weighed down like they did last week, my stride felt mechanical over the first mile. I began pushing the pace at that point and things improved a lot. Although I ended up with a middling overall pace, the second half of my distance was run about a minute per mile faster than the first. I'm beginning to see evidence that incremental effort can yield measurable results. But to achieve that, you need to take the proper rest.