Changed schedule

So, here it is Sunday night.  The Oscars are over and movies I've not seen have been rewarded.  Iran yesterday to make up for having missed my Thursday run.  Flexible schedules and not being too anal about sticking to them is what will help you survive getting back into running.  I had to go to Woodinville on Wednesday and I didn't get home until after 12:00 am on Thursday.  In fact, as I was plugging phones in I noted the time; 1:00.  Four hours until I needed to get up for that run...maybe Friday.  Turns out I'm not as young as I once was.  Friday morning came, alarms went off, and I ignored them.  So yesterday afternoon, after working for a few hours I went for a little run; 3.1 miles to be exact.  For those of you following along at home, that is 5K.

To plot my path through the neighborhoods, I used both Nike's site and LiveStrong's site.  both gave the same distance, but the LiveStrong site shows you the elevation changes of your run in relation to the distance.  So I knew heading out that at 2.5K I would start up a long rise that would take 500M to complete.  Then I would get to decrease my elevation to below my start-point over the next Kilometer.  This meant that my LAST click was spent climbing back up to the starting point.  This loop will be a permanent fixture in my running loops.  I also managed a nice comfortable 10:10 pace over the whole distance.  I look forward to a day in the future when we look back on a 32:00 5K with nostalgia, and marvel at how much faster I am doing that distance.  I'm not crazy and think I will do a 10K in that time, that ship sailed decades ago, but I think a 45 minute 10K is reasonable.  Maybe not in May or June, but by the end of Summer certainly.  I will strive for that Airborne quality speed of 7 minute miles, as I feel that is reachable.

This time next week will be the "victory post."  The race has sold out, I have my team together, not whom I had originally thought, but hey, being flexible is what this is all about.  So this week we have learned that Lance's site is cooler than tha parent site for the maps...elevation info is great for planning a run.  We have also learned that---well actually life taught this one years ago--being flexible with plans is key to not going gray before I'm 42.  The next race is scheduled and paid for, so after next Sunday, we roll right into training for that one.