Feeling better

I've had a better running week. At the same time I've had an excellent week at college so things are going a bit more smoothly than last week and the depressing hill race debacle.

My knee niggle's been fine, and more importantly, I decided that I just wanted to enjoy running this week, without trying to be faster.  I ran 5 miles on Tuesday, and another 5 on Thursday, when I went up Carlton Hill, which is steadily uphill for 25 minutes, with a variety of gradients. My times weren't disgraceful, and I just felt good about running.

Today was even better - 14 miles from my house to Cramond and back. It was dark when I went out, the sun rose while I ran and it was fully daylight when I got home. That's my favourite sort of run - sunrise run, even on a cloudy day. Hat and gloves required and a pocket full of jelly babies. My routes along the coast are so scenic, even if they're windy. I felt really good today and really enjoyed every step, despite starting off a bit stressed and not even sure how long I was going to aim for.

I've not been very motivated to train recently, and I heard something on the MTA podcast this morning a quote that made me think. The speaker Eric Strand said he was paraphrasing Sir Edmund Hilary when he said "It woudln't be much of an adventure if success was guaranteed." I've never failed to complete a half marathon - unlike training for my first marathon, which was a new and exciting prospect and I had no idea if it was within my capabilities.

I'm not sure what I'll do next week, if I'll do more speedwork - after all the race I'm training for is in 2 weeks. But I'm so happy to be enjoying running again, especially since last week everything seemed so bleak.