Changed Perspective

Marathon training has a way of changing your perspective on a lot of things. Before my first 26.2 I used to think of any run over 7 or so miles as "long." Now, when I have a weekend "long run" of 15, it seems like nothing. Similarly, I used to think waking up at 6:45 for a run was early. Now that I have to be at work earlier and I have multiple midweek MLRs*, 5am seems like a reasonable hour for running.

Today's MLR was a 12 miler (yes, they're slowing creeping up in distance). I ran south along the Hudson all the way to 46th Street, where I turned around and ran back to 72nd where I cut across Riverside Park and continued to Central Park, returning home along East Drive.

Here's a great picture of Riverside Park in the wee morning hours courtesy of Wolf in NY. Riverside Park and the Hudson River Greenway tend to be pretty empty in the early hours--I could count the total number of other runners I saw on one hand--but that's what I like about it. It's a chance for me to think, to assess my running, and to just get into the zone.

By the time I got home from my run today, I felt great. I'm ready to attack the work day and I'm really looking forward to another successful week of training.

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*Medium Long Run--basically any run between 10 and 15 miles.