Running

Today was beyond beautiful. Perfect running weather. Sunny, 57 degrees, and not too windy. I decided to skip my regular 5K route and instead do some speed work along the lake. This was my first attempt at fartleks. I can't recommend fartleks enough. The brief sprints interspersed during my normal running was fun.

It made my normal pace seem slow and easy, so I was able to keep at that pace without feeling overwhelmed. I still walked occasionally, but those stretches were more than balanced out with my speedier stretches. In fact, this was one of my fastest runs of the year.

I also took a different route, one that stayed as close to Lake Michigan as possible. By changing up my view while running, I was distracted by the new sights and sounds, which also kept my mind off of any tiredness that I felt.

I tend to get caught up in the left-brained, analytical aspect of running, so it was nice to do something more left-brained and let the math part wait until after I got home and sat down.