The Need to Cruise

Yesterday consisted of a two nice and easy runs of 10 and 7 miles. One way that I can tell when I'm in decent shape is when my second runs of the day are easy. In the beginning of a cycle, when I first start incorporating doubles into my routine, I usually struggle mightily on the second run for the day. Part of that is because I don't have a ton of recovery between my first and second run. I usually finish up my first run by about 8AM and am back out there for the second one around noon. That's probably not the ideal way to do it, but with 4 kids, I kind of like to be done with the running by the time I get home from work. This is the only way to do it.

Today was a 6 mile tempo run and while I was hoping the legs would feel great, they were still a bit fatigued. I eased into the tempo with the first two miles coming in at 5:37 and then start getting into a groove with the next 2 miles clocking in at 5:26. With the second half of the run heading into a headwind, it was tough to make up time and actually I was working pretty hard just to maintain the pace and finished out with two more miles at 5:37. Overall pace for the run was a pretty comfortable 5:34.

This was a nice confidence booster. While I can't say the top gear is there right now, I was in a pretty decent cruise gear that felt comfortable. Regular tempo runs are really something I need to do be doing all the time, regardless of what phase of training I am currently in. Putting aside the physiological benefits of the run, I need to be doing these because of the boost in confidence they give me. For some reason, I just don't get the same boost from hammering out repeats.