Run It Hard... For Me!

It's mid-January in Dallas.  Two weeks ago we had 15 degree weather that had every runner shivering, and folks scampering to their treadmills and the gyms where all the hardcore runners mixed and mingled with all the New Year Resolution-ers in their bright white brand new sneakers.  But not me, I always run outside.  So I pushed through.  I dealt with it - I got my miles in.

But this week has been beautiful.  In the 60s, not much humidity, generally great weather.  And as I look outside right now, with temperatures in the mid-60s, I want to RUN... RUN... RUN.  And yes, I'm running every day, tonight's run will be day #17 in my first ever running streak.  But I have recently doubled my weekly mileage to almost 30 miles a week, ran Houston Half Marathon last Sunday, and I ran it hard.  I PRed, taking about 3 1/2 minutes off my time.  And now I'm running my first back-to-back weekends of halfs, with the 3M Half Marathon in Austin on Sunday (Jan. 24).  And then it will actually be back-to-back-to-back weekends really, because I have the Texas Half the following Saturday (Jan. 31).

So last week, this week, and next week are all about running just a few "easy" miles at a time.  So the last few days, this beautiful weather has been squandered by this poor girl, who is doing a couple slow miles at a time while her muscles feel like sludge.  But I am hoping now that I'm pulling out of that tiredness and will feel normal again.  And I have the itch for speedwork and tempo runs and a hard kick at the end of a run REAL BAD at this point.  But this season is definitely dedicated to being a smart runner, so I will run easy, and dream of 3 weeks from now - AND I WILL NOT GET INJURED! 

I'll have a weekend off from my multiple half marathon spring season in a few weeks (February 1-7), and I hope to get one speedwork run and one "purposeful pace" run in on that "off" week.  But of course, it's Texas, so that will probably be the week we get snow... and a blizzard... with a tornado... and 5 degree windchill. :-)  Here's my Spring 2010 race calendar if you need a review of the long list of races I have the next few months in my goal towards at least "10 halfs in '10".

So get out there today and enjoy this weather.  And... just for me... because I'm being a good girl... RUN IT HARD.  Do it for me!  I mean, don't get yourself injured, but give today's run a little push, or work in some speedwork or intervals if you haven't done that in a while and the mood strikes you.  Or even just do an extra half mile for me, while I'm stuck with 2-3 mile runs right now.  Because the weather's perfect this week, and I don't want you to waste it!

And then come back here and comment and tell me what you did, and if this blog post changed your intended workout at all.  I'm all about living vicariously through others' runs during this time!