nice running weather

'Nice' is so bland and overused, but I mean it in a heartfelt way. The weather today was really nice for running, not sunny, not too humid or warm...it was pretty near perfect. I wore a long-sleeved shirt so that I wouldn't feel too comfortable and speed up too much, but it was still very easy to drift into a faster pace.

I didn't want to do that. I was supposed to do this run yesterday, but it was very humid and I was tired. The army run is in 6 days and I don't want to strain myself, but I did want to get the last long run in beforehand and then carbload afterwards.

Anyway, the dog and I jogged 10.94 miles at least, which is a new distance record for him! Someone recognized him and called his name while we were walking after the run, and asked how he was doing--I should have told them of his triumph. However, at the time, I hadn't realized how far we'd run, not until I checked on www.runningmap.com back at home. This is a vestige of my summer resolution: to enjoy running rather than worry about pace. Therefore, the Garmin usually stays home. It has been a win-win situation so far, as I'm still able to push myself during speedwork; in fact, I feel like I have more stamina and energy for harder workouts. We'll see if this approach gets me to Boston, but I don't think I'll return to monitoring pace during easy runs any time soon. In fact, I'm hoping that I'll eventually feel comfortable gauging effort during speedwork to drop the Garmin then too, and then perhaps with races, which I'll then perhaps forgo altogether and lope off into the sunset instead....

Anyway, my right hip flexor was sore this morning, but it loosened up during the run, and passed on the tightness to something else on the back/inner side of my right knee (okay, posterior-medial)...like the distal end of a sartorius muscle. Yes, I've had to hit the anatomy book recently (www.getbodysmart.com is more fun, btw)...but I think that could be the main culprit, and that would account for the hip issue too because the same muscle could be to blame for both locales. It's incidentally the longest muscle in the body, too, so I've really hit the A-list here. lol

Anyway, what this really means, whether that muscle or another or several are to blame, is more stretching, more stick, more yoga....I don't seem to get injured, knock wood, but I'm always managing little glitches here and there. This just might be taper nerves.