I set out to do a 12 miler last night after work, and did something I don’t do very often. I listened to my body and cut it short at 8 miles. My hamstrings were abnormally tight and twitchy, and I was just working way too hard to maintain even a slowish pace. That decision paid off today. I had an 8 mile run on the schedule at lunch, and with a thunderstorm approaching, left the waterbottle and ipod behind.

I started fast and stayed that way for the whole run. Clocking 1:02 for 8 hilly miles. Nothing earth-shattering, but it was one of my fastest training runs of the year – and coming only 5 days after doing a 40 miler (with a 32 the week before that) made it pretty sweet.

My heart rate averaged 171 beats per minute. That’s holding 93% of my maximum heart rate for over an hour. Ouch! I was workin’…

It’s very nice to cut loose once in a while and RUN.