Building

My legs seemed to have recovered a good bit from Saturday's run, although still more tired than I expected. We did a new route this evening on the group run. It was an out and back rather than the usual loop on campus. Most of the group did the full 4.5 mile route but my legs and training schedule told me to stick with the 3 miles for now. ;) Actually, the schedule as presented to me was only dictating a 2 mile run but that seemed a bit light. The weather was pretty tolerable, it was 82 and sunny. I didn't notice until I made the turnaround that I'd run the first half with a light tailwind. My pace was much better than 2 days ago--I did the 3 miles in 34 minutes compared to 37 the other day. I felt MUCH better during the run as well. The run was all up or downhill though--no flat portions to it. It started with a decent uphill for 3 or 5 blocks, then back to a gradual down slope for a mile. Although that was nice, I knew I'd have to come back up it so I was dreading the route home! At least the very last portion was good for coasting.

I was actually a bit disappointed that we didn't run the campus loop as I was wanting to see how I was doing. It helps me gauge my improvement to see how I pace at a given spot in the route. I imagine that Thursday's run may go back to the loop, we'll see. I think tomorrow for the run on my own I may do the local rail-trail. I've been wanting to do that one for a while but just haven't made it over there (other than the day I took the pup for a walk there). It's 3 miles one way if I do the whole thing, maybe could run out and walk it back b/c I know I'm not up to a 6 mile run just yet! Although if it's a flat path, it won't be as rough as the routes I've been doing. That's one thing about southern Indiana though, not too many routes are flat!