What a Difference a Day Makes

I guess all I had to do was complain about the weather and it would break. After struggling through the first 3 days of this week, with temps and humidity both soaring to season highs, it suddenly cooled off on Wednesday night and hasn't gotten out of the 60's since. As expected, this has helped a lot with the runs.

I guess part of my problem is that I put way too much stock in every single run that I do. I see the average pace for a run in the 7:00's and start thinking that I've suddenly lost it. It's all downhill from here. I know that's not a smart, or even healthy, way to think, but it's how I tick. I can't just shut it off, so I have to deal with it somehow.

Yesterday was a 10 miler in the morning and right from the get-go things were feeling good. Actually, things were probably feeling a little too good, as I went out a little too ambitiously and paid the price from about miles 3-5 or so. For some reason after that rough patch, things started to come back around and I finished the run up averaging a 6:10 pace for the entire thing. Later that afternoon, I took my two boys out for a test stroll in the new jogging stroller that I got. It was Ryan's (my 7 month old)virgin run and he seemed to enjoy it for the most part. I'll admit I was a little nervous having Mikey and Ryan confined in the stroller for what turned into a 50 minute run. Mikey still hasn't really grasped the whole "gentle" thing with Ryan, so he tends to treat him like one of his spiderman dolls. However, they both came out of the experience mostly unscathed, so I'll call it a success.

Today was another 10 miles out on the lakefront and it was a great run. I felt really strong the entire run and wound up averaging 6:06 for the entire run. With about 3 miles to go, some young guys were out riding one of those goofy 4 man bikes that they let you rent at Navy Pier and then clog up the path on the lakefront. Normally, it's little kids and their parents manning the bikes, but this time it was a bunch of 20-something guys. They seemed to take exception to being passed by a runner, so they wanted to race me. Of course never one to back down from a challenge, I upped the pace a bit and they just couldn't respond. I could hear them yelling at me the rest of my run, which I'm sure helped bring down that pace a bit in those last few miles.