A good morning.

I ran for an hour this morning. I ran.

OK, let's start from the beginning. I got up, TIRED as heck, got dressed and went downstairs to warm up a little. I warmed up by blasting music and dancing around the living room (hey, why not have fun?). Then I moved on to stretching. I got warm enough to want to get out of the house at 545am, still dark and a bit chilly (not as cold as it has been in the East, but hey, everything is relative).

I started jogging very easy, for 5 minutes - then I walked to stretch out my hips more for the next 5 mintues, and stretched my quads twice along the way, and then to wrap up my extended warm up, I jogged again for another 5 minutes.

I focused on my warm up this morning because of the fact that I hadn't really *ran* in 3 days or so, and I wanted to make sure that I could maximize my running while I was in fact running.

The warm up paid off. I was running smoothly 10-15 minutes into my main run, and towards the end of the 4th mile (i think) I didn't feel like stopping - I could go on for another 3-4 miles (what a relief, i have a half marathon in 3 weeks!). I was able to change my speed more swiftly too, which felt great. We all know there are days we can't tell if we're going faster or slower or what.

Some people can just start running. I can't. I could, but I wouldn't last long. I have to take the time to warm up properly. I have to take the time to get my body to be ready to run. Yes, I would like to be like those some people that can just get up and get running. But I am not. Big deal. Take some extra time and make sure YOUR run is right for YOU. It's YOUR run, it's MY run, not somebody else's.

Anyway, I cooled down for 5 minutes after 4.5 miles, and then stretched and got myself on the foam roller after the run. It felt good. What a good run this morning. What a relief that is, too.

Tomorrow I will attempt to do a shorter run but faster. Friday, strength training and recovery. Saturday (or Sunday), a big 10 miler.

Have a nice day.