Strong showing this week - so far

well i've had my share of good runs this week.  things are starting to come together nicely.  i've yet to push any kind of distance since my trip to arizona, but have been maintaining a good bit of 1 - 2 hour runs consistently. most of them at a decent pace.

the best part is though the pace is turning out to be decent, the effort is somewhere between relaxed and pressing things slightly.  i've been running faster on seemingly sluggish legs (i seem to have a good portion of the days without spring in my step) without really pressing the pace.  this is a pleasant surprise.

my week started with a nice bit of climbing up a new trail - el capitan mountain.  great run with some extra rocky sections and steep climbs, then some goat track at the end.  some very fun segments.  I was pleasantly surprised with how springy my legs felt on some sections, and how well my achilles held up.  i did a precautionary stretch and massage about 1/2 way up.  It was truly a good day full of some great views.

the next few days were comprised of mainly flat easy runs to leg my legs take in the el capitan experience.  then i did a trip up cowles, which felt pretty good.  had some tightness, but nothing to worry about.  then an easier run thursday afternoon out in mission trails.  it was supposed to be flat, but somehow turned into a bit of climbing.  all in all things are still good.

then today (friday) i went out for an easy jog to let my legs recoup from the climbing, and felt very consistent (not great, so i didn't push it, at least not early on).  i had some repercussions from the heavy lunch, mostly in the form of a very heavy feeling in my gut, though my legs never really felt like i was pushing, my lungs were struggling slightly due to the overloaded stomach (i'm good at storing lots of food).  with about 2 miles left i noticed i was on a pretty good pace, and decided to press it slightly and see how close i could get to 50 minutes without truly racing.  i managed a tidy 51:25, and never really went too crazy with the effort.  it felt very sustainable except the excess food.

looking forward to logging some good runs this weekend.  enjoy . . .