Just Running

Lately I've just been running. Not too much and not too fast. I'm just slowly building up to the 60-mile week range that I was at before my taper started in mid-February. One thing that I have noticed is that even without more than a general aerobic (GA) effort, my pace is noticably faster than it was before my taper. The same thing happened after my previous marathon (back in 2003) also. I ran that one at 8:00 pace, and I did most of my training at 8:00 minute pace, not having the knowledge or experience to know about or execute tempo runs or hard and easy days. I mostly just ran and figured the rest would take care of itself. However, after that marathon, I noticed that suddenly when I would go out and just run, my pace was 20-30 seconds faster than it had been. Prior to my taper for the Napa Valley Marathon, my GA pace was usually between 7:55 and 8:05. Lately without any additional effort I've been running closer to 7:40 pace. I don't know if the quicker pace is here to stay or not. I guess time will tell.

I ran 7.5 miles yesterday after work. Today I took off from work to take care of a couple of things. I took advantage of the time off to run this morning (7.5 miles). I'm also planning to run this afternoon. I'll either run a 5 mile out and back or run the 7.5 mile loop. I'll decide somewhere between my start and the 2.5 mile turn-around point.