Just Grinding Away

It felt good to get in all my runs last week. A couple of things that I notice after I miss a few runs. I feel like I start to enjoy running less. I read running forums and other blogs and see that other runners really miss running and go crazy when they can't run for more than a day. I'm the opposite. When I miss a couple of runs, I find it really hard to get back out and get into the groove of running on a regular basis. Don't think that I don't like running. I do. In fact, the more I run, the more I like it; and when I can't run for more than a few days, I do get a strong urge to be out running. The other thing that I notice is that after missing a few runs it becomes really hard for me to run when I'm tired. After following my schedule almost religiously for a couple of months, I got to a point where I recovered quickly and was ready to go the next day no matter how hard the previous day was. After missing five or six runs over the past three weeks, I'm finding it hard to bounce back after running hard.

I ran an 18 mile long run today. The first few miles weren't really tough, but I was running slow for the effort. I did seem to get stronger as the run went on though, and I was able to run the last five miles at sub-7:40 mile pace, which is how my schedule tells me to run my long runs.