What's Next?

I went back and forth yesterday, almost deciding to run for an eighth straight day.  In the end, common sense took over and I followed my instinct to recover from the prior week.  I've had a few different thoughts regarding what to do today, and ultimately, for this week.  I could take another day of rest, although, my legs weren't really sore yesterday, and they certainly aren't sore this morning.  While they still may be fatigued (I'll find out once I start running), I'm feeling more refreshed and I slept relatively well last night.  All signs would indicate that I'm good to run today.  The question is how far?  Or, the question is, how fast?  I've been pretty dedicated over the past month to running comfortably, without expending any real hard efforts.  I broke that a little on Sunday with my progression run, but that went well.  Part of me is tempted to run hard for a shorter period of time, but  I probably want to make sure that I'm not putting too much stress on my system yet.

Eight miles beckons, having gotten into that routine.  On the other hand, six miles suddenly seems very easy.  I could mix things up this week by running six miles a day for the rest of the week and finish the week on Sunday with a long run.  That might give me an idea as to where my long run endurance is.  That's the bias I had yesterday, and it hasn't changed much today.  Eight miles a day clearly puts a "stress" on my body that's manageable, but it's a stress nevertheless.  I could continue with the same routine until eight miles is not longer a stress.  That's another option.  In that case, running six miles today might just be a transition back to another eight mile a day streak.

I'm enjoying testing my body out once again.  I've clearly spent a good portion of the past thirty years doing that via exercise in a variety of ways.  Running, biking, swimming.  Marathons, triathlons, Ironman's.  I've tested my body, I've tested my mind.  It's a good combination, and a relatively healthy one, when done properly  I was a bit "out of sorts" yesterday.  It might have been the fact that I didn't run.  Or, it might have been the fact that I needed to not run.  It's hard to know. I'm feeling a little better today.  Out the door I go, for six miles, or whatever the road tells me to do!