Time to Run Earlier

I feel like I had a poor week of running this week, because I ran only three days instead of four and I failed to make it to a group run as I had hoped. But I did a decent 9.5 miles today, slowly increasing my long run, so it wasn't all bad. On weekdays I have been running almost exclusively in the evening, but in order to keep myself on a more regular schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm going to begin taking advantage of the early daylight to get my run in early.

First NRA Group Run

Months ago I signed up as a member of the Narragansett Running Association. Last night I finally met up with them for my first run with the group, which gathered at Narragansett Town Beach at 6pm. It's a large group and I was assured by the group's President that I'd find someone to run with who fit my preferred distance and pace. Sure enough I did, though I wound up running longer than I would have on my own. I thought it was a great run; I only hope I didn't hold back the young woman with whom I ran, who seemed fitter and certainly faster than I am. It was good to meet some local runners and to run with a group again. It nothing else, the conversation during the run seems to make the miles go by faster.

Track meet . . . Girl Scout meeting . . . Kids!

I missed my run today and I am none too happy about it. Sometimes life just gets in the way. But I'll make up for it first thing in the morning.

Two in a Row

Many runners run daily, or close to it. Not me. I need rest, so four days per week has typically been the max for me, and today I ran for a second straight day for the first time this year. I felt surprisingly good, running watchless and at a comfortable pace for four miles, after eight miles yesterday. From here on out I hope to run four days per week, as I described a couple of days ago. As I increase mileage and hope to run faster, sleep becomes more important. So I'm off to bed!

Running Longer

Good first long run tonight. Left the watch at the start/finish line. Always feel a little more free running without a watch.

Picking it Up

Took it easy on the run tonight, after going pretty hard the last two. For several weeks I have been running every other day, now it's time to increase it to four days per week, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, as I did much of last year while training for the marathon. Saturday I will do my first "long run," probably 8 miles, then I will run slow and short Sunday as a recovery day, then a fast tempo run Tuesday and intervals Thursday, then over and again, increasing mileage and bettering times. That's the plan anyway. I also want to start running with others again when I can, so I'll probably show up soon to my first Narragansett Running Association group run. I "joined" months ago but have yet to actually run with the NRA. Why did I just see an image of a bunch of gun-toting runners along the seawall in Narragansett?

Loving Having Run (and sometimes running, too)

It has been said by many writers - I think first by Dorothy Parker - that they hate writing, but love having written. Some years ago I was inspired to begin running by the writer Natalie Goldberg, who in her classic Writing Down the Bones (which I was reading when I should have been studying for the bar exam) compared running to writing in the sense that she hated doing it but loved having done it. Some times I feel similarly about running, but other times, like tonight, I actually do enjoy the running itself. Tonight's run, during my son's soccer practice, was a tougher 6-mile route than I ran two days ago - due to busy streets and a few large hills - but I enjoyed the run much more. I never can tell when I will enjoy the run and when I will struggle to finish, not so much physically as mentally, and that's a good thing, because each time I go out I am eager to discover what type of run I will have.