Roller Coaster Run / When the Running Week Starts & Ends

1/9/12     Running the rural roads in Glastonbury off Marlborough Road and Diamond Lake Road late Monday night was like being a self-propelled roller coaster. Up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down for about an hour. It was a nice change of scenery from what I’ve been used to seeing when I run the same rotation of routes from my house. It also made the decision to do a tempo run instead of a hills workout the next evening a much easier one to make. Thankfully we ran easy enough to still be able to talk about running, our training for the week, and proper attire without getting too short of breath. I was able to tell Paul about my favorite running socks called WrightSocks and how the double layer of material rubbed against each other rather than having the friction between your feet and the shoe like normal socks. They’ve saved me from getting any more blisters or black & blue/bloody toenails since my good friend, and running buddy, Matt Yoder told me about them about a year ago.

      After talking with Paul when we finished running, I was able to finally make a difficult decision that I’d been mulling over since my training began in this New Year. I didn’t know whether I was going to total my weekly millage based on a Sunday through Saturday schedule like I had done while training for my first marathon, or change my running week from a Monday through Sunday schedule like a few of my training partners do. I had always totaled my weekly millage from Sunday through Saturday because it felt natural and because my first marathon happened to fall on a Saturday, so most of my longest runs would come on Saturday during that training. The argument for changing my schedule from Monday through Sunday stemmed from the fact my next marathon, on May 6, will be run on a Sunday and now all of my longest runs will fall on Sundays. Eventually, Paul said something like, “If it works for you, why change it?” And that translated into “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it,” in my own head. Thanks Paul, problem solved, decision made.