New Year's day jog

The little devil on my left shoulder won again and convinced me to go running on the first morning of 2011. I resisted; oh, how I resisted. It took him a whole minute to talk me into it.

It was an amazing day, sunny and warm with a light breeze, just the kind of day that puts a gun to your head and threatens you with unspeakable horrors if you choose the sofa instead of a walk in the woods. I put on my sneakers again, but this time with added spikes. The temperature had risen over night, resulting in patches of treacherous ice on the pavement.

I ran toward the lake. Not many people were about. I suspect that, at 10 o'clock the morning after the New Year celebrations, most people are at home, either asleep or nursing a hangover. I had the woods all to myself. My pulse was high, but then again the effort of keeping a high cadence on only 5 hours of sleep will most likely do that. My foot had no complaints, however, and since my training has been revolving around it lately, I can't complain either.

5,5 km later I was at my doorstep again. It worries me that my stamina is so much worse than it used to. It was only a few weeks ago I ran the 49 km from Alingsås, and now I can hardly run 5 without getting out of breath. How am I supposed to run a marathon in 4,5 months?

On the plus side, I have wonderfully achy calves!