Fun? No. Rewarding? Yes.

Yesterday morning I was in the middle of talking myself out of doing my run, when Caution: Redhead Running's marathon recap popped up in my Google Reader. I've been following her training blog for a while and was pulling for her to reach her race goal. I don't care who you are or whether you run, I dare you to read a race recap and not admit that it makes you want to go run. When I finished reading her race recap I said to myself, "ok, time to go put on some running clothes." And out I went. Even though it was gray and windy out, I thoroughly enjoyed the run. It was a classic example of the runner's creed: you often regret the runs you don't do, but rarely regret the runs you do.

Then today, the stars aligned and Meg and I could both go to track practice with the Team. Plus, it's time in our training schedule to get some speed work in. Yeeeeow!! It was only 4 miles total (1 mile warm-up, 8x400, and a mile cool-down), and a workout I've done dozens of times. But, wow. That's gonna hurt in the morning. I did each 400 anywhere between 1:37 and 1:48 (I think). According to a post from last May, I'm right on pace with early speed work from last year. So, woohoo for that! Meg killed it tonight. She tore it up.

Conversation when I got home:

Mr. Joanna: "Did you have fun?"

Me: "Fun? No."

Mr. Joanna: "Well, are you glad you went?"

Me: "Yes."

That pretty well sums up speed work. It's not fun (although the camaraderie is), but man is it productive.

77.0 + 3.7 + 4.0 = 84.7 miles