Freedom of speech and on the trail

Into the woods

Today's run (Stillwell Woods): 3.5 miles

Those of you who also have running blogs know that the easier you make it for people to comment, the more you'll find people who'll take advantage of that access. Over the years I've changed the criteria for submitting comments. Now I allow anyone to post, because I just don't want to leave anyone out. As a result, I have to clean out a bunch of spam comments every day. But it's a small price to pay for freedom of speech!

This morning I decided that I needed to take my performance focus down a notch, so I headed over to Stillwell for an easy trail run. It was dry, cool and sunny and the trails were in great shape. A mile or so into the run, I realized how strong I felt. Stillwell tends to beat me up badly, and this was evidence that my conditioning has improved.

Besides a couple of mountain bikers and woman walking her dog, the trails were empty. I loved the feeling of running well and having the woods pretty much all to myself. There's usually a point in almost every run when you begin to feel the work. You start thinking about how much longer or farther you have to go. Today was different in the best of ways. Tomorrow it's back to road, the hills and the miles.

Variability, structure, running and Thai food

Post run reward

Yesterday's run (treadmill): 3.2 miles
Today's run (street): 3.2 miles

My definition of work is much different than it used to be. When I was going into the office every day, I'd follow the same routine. My morning regimen would usually include a workout and shower, followed by a train ride into the city. Now that the world is my office, the flow of my day can be very different. The consequence of having a less structured schedule is that my posting frequency has (slightly) suffered.

Due to this, I couldn't find the time to write about a treadmill run that was almost exactly the same as the one I ran the day before. So here's a recap: I turned on the treadmill, ran about 30 minutes, then stopped. For details, see my prior post.

Today was different. I had a mid morning appointment, so I did an early run outside. It was my first outdoor run since Tuesday, and I appreciated the sunny and warm conditions. I spent most of my time on the road, rather than the sidewalk, and I'll admit that I preferred it that way. It wasn't an easy run and I'm not really sure why. I can't blame it on hard work, as my pace was exactly average.

Since I now follow a variable schedule of my own design, my wife and I took a time-out for lunch and headed to the Lemonleaf Grill (my favorite Thai restaurant in the area). Soon after that, it was back to business, but only through mid-afternoon. It was a beautiful day so I decided to start my weekend early. After all, a variable work schedule also means variable leisure time.