EZ Running

What a wonderful change in the weather during the course of the day! The very long-promised cold front blew through today, and we're promised a really nice 55-60 degree morning on Friday. It topped out in the mid-70's this afternoon, which feels like much cooler due to the comparison to the previous month or more. Awesome. It's amazing how much friendlier and happier people have been today, too, strictly because we're not fighting the heat every time we walk from our cars to a store or school. It's about time!

Anyway, this evening, I went out for my scheduled easy recovery run of 50-60 minutes. I was heavily laden with electronic gizmos, but too bad, that's the way I roll on this particular workout. GPS locked in, HR monitor set for Recovery Zone, and iPod set to Shuffle, I took off in the 'Hood at 7:00 pm, content to just roam until the time for the run had expired. It was time for the fourth or fifth run with the Fila shoes, which work just fine for all these short to mid-length runs. I'm a little hesitant to use them on the longer runs just yet.

It was really great out there, finally. Temps dropping the whole run long, maybe to the low 60's by the end of it. It was fairly windy, too. After the brutal September we had, this was like a perfect spring day. The running was easy, and I had no trouble staying in recovery HR range. Ran back to the water tower trail behind the 'Hood first, due to falling daylight, and had the fun off-road portion of the run first. Then, settled in, I ran the rest of the time on the streets. It was just a fun run. Ended up knocking out 6.5 miles at 9:23/mile pace, just over an hour, and it felt really easy. Legs fine, all systems go.

Lots of fun stuff on the iPod, too, ranging from Nirvana (acoustic) to John Lennon to Nick Drake to Run DMC to all possible points in between. Every time I hear one of the Run DMC tracks, I smile. It's just really fun rap music, old school style. I can't help but make the record scratching motion when I hear that come up on a track. Cool.

Tomorrow is a visit to the gym, and Saturday is Bonnell. So far, a great running week. And the Braves are even winning tonight (so far)...!