Peaceful Easy Running

I have these great ideas for blogging everyday.  I think of my runs and themes jump like Donkey, shouting, "ooh!  Pick Me, Pick Me!"  ...and yet, I finish my runs, shower, sit down to relax, and the end of the day has come yet once again, and so I tell myself that I'll blog another day...

My kids are home sick from school today, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to try to capture bits and pieces of those themes, as the details have begun to fade and morph into one giant anomalous blob.  So here we go:

Peaceful Easy Running
Last night marks the second of my runs back to running easy - really easy.  I've been feeling like I'm on the verge of overtraining (more tired, legs heavier, racing is harder), so I've decided to make a conscious effort to back off the pace on all of my runs (with the execption of organized events).  I've had an epiphany as a result.  I don't know if it's right or wrong, but right now it feels right for me.  My current JD easy pace indicates I should be somewhere around 9:30-9:40.  The last two runs I averaged 10:45 and 10:16 (up to 3:30 slower than my current pace for a 5K) - and it felt good.  No, it felt GREAT!  My epiphany (well actually more than one), is that easy running should feel just that - EASY!  If you feel like you have to put any effort into keeping the pace, it's not really easy.  Can it really be that simple?  I've been so caught up in what pace Daniels says I should be running, that I lost focus on the "feeling."  Secondly, and perhaps more importantly - running slow is more fun!  Really, common sense right?  Not really - it's too easy to get all wrapped up in improving, training harder, intervals, hills, the right pace, appropriate mileage, etc... that sometimes I lose a grip on the fun part of running.  I found myself not worrying about pace, not thinking about breathing, just running and exploring.  By "exploring" I mean that I realized that it's been a while since I really just observe while I run - notice a house I've never seen before - watching the way the trees move in the wind, etc...  Last night was particularly cool (despite the cold strong wind) because when I started there was no precipitation.  It started to drizzle just before the halfway point - a cold, hard, in your face, stinging rain, but by the time I was hitting my last mile and a half, it had turned into a very light flurry.  The kind of snow that takes what seems like forever to fall to the ground.  The kind where the flakes often seem to be moving more upwards, or sideways, rather than downwards.

So I've decided to go easy - add some miles to my weekly total, but make all of my runs easy - at least for a month, to give my body some rest...

Ok - so another ambitious start to a post - I got so carried away with this thought, that I'll now choose to leave other thoughts for other days...

Recent Results:
Ran the Frozen Foote #3 last Saturday.  It was snowy, slow, and I felt energy-less.  I've posted the overall results elsewhere on my blog, but they can also be found on northernrunner.org.

Upcoming Races:
I'll probably do the River Shiver Polar Bear 5K on Saturday.