Running Just Not Writing #2

First things first. Big news of this post is that Reba and I are engaged. Happened on Thursday under the Lansdowne Sycamore. We've been talking about it for awhile, and plan is to have a low-key wedding celebration later this summer. Life is good!

Running is good too. I'm on my way to closing my second straight solid training week. Each run would, in less hectic weeks, be a blog entry in itself. But here is a recap on the last three runs:

Thursday was an 11 mile Strawberry Mansion Bridge loop with three tempo miles. I remember feeling very stiff and unmotivated. I popped a sports-gel before I left to see if it would motivate me any. I didn't feel any more energetic, but did squeeze out an 18:58 over the three tempo miles with the last two miles catching up after a somewhat slower 6:35 first mile. Was it the gel? I didn't feel any burst of energy, I feel like the time came from a concerted effort to push and seasoned with some grit. But who knows. Don't remember the time for the whole loop, its not important.

Yesterday I had my blog entry outlined before I finished the run. It was a glorious run, one of those you wish you could put in a bottle and wish that it didn't have to be used on such a relatively inconsequential run. It also marked what I call my return to the hamster wheel, meaning that I have returned to tallying the miles in my head. I really want to run 60 this week, and as a result I extended my run by one bridge and did a 9.5-mile Montgomery Bridge loop. Don't remember the time, do remember that running was fun that morning.

And today I went out to run long. I started by heading out to the sycamore on my usual 10-mile route and extended this loop by going deeper into SW Philly at the end. My goal was to go 2 hours. Ran for 2:01:33. Had to map it for mileage and it fell a little short of 14 miles, so I call it 13.5. Had I known I'd have thrown another ten minutes in. This morning was a hot one. I'm glad I got out early and glad that I have the long run over for the weekend.

This leaves eight miles for tomorrow and I get 60 for the week.