After a decent weekend of no-pain runs, the week so far has been just as good. My back pain seems to have subsided for the most part, which has opened up the ability for me to start to push my pace again without much issue (at least for now). I’m starting to get that running ‘buzz’ back, despite the fact that its quite cold out now when I head out in the mornings. I was happy that we set the clocks back, which means that I now do half my run in the dark an half in the light, its really a welcome change. I can only imagine that running in the cold day after day is only going to help me with the marathon on the 22nd.. I do get some strange looks from people though when I get back to my house after a longer run in the cold because I actually have a light layer of frost on my shoulders from sweating (and then it wicks and then refreezes) .. its yet another reason for my neighbors to think i’m nuts..

I wrote the other day about the birds that I saw on my run, the last two mornings have been all about the moon … a FULL moon. its pretty cool to be out in the crisp morning air, with only moonlight guiding my way. It was really bright…

So I still plan to carefully select my courses and distances to ensure i’m getting quality out of my runs, and not necessarily quantity. For now, Mondays are now an easy day, Thursday is a modified speed-work day with my longer runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (and my long run on Saturday). I’m down to my last long run of the season this weekend… with another hard week next week before starting to taper it off for the race.

Just 17 days until the next race ….