Itching to Blog

As I floated through my run off the bike today, I was composing my next blog entry.  I'm finding that blogging is like keeping a training log, something I stopped doing years ago.  Today was one of those awesome training days where I wish I was racing because I was hitting one great workout after another.  Right now, I'm in the middle of a good training block where I feel good while training but tired in between workouts.  For example, I can run, but I get easily tired when I'm walking, especially up stairs.  The start of each workout is a bit more anxious because I have expectations as to what types of markers I need to hit. On Tuesday, I knew I had to do a tempo run with 3 miles on the track.  I felt like crap the first 10 minutes and was thinking that there was no way I was going to average better than 6:15 like I did for my two miles last week.  But once I hit the track I just picked it up and ran. My first mile split was 6:15, going with the flow, I hit a 6:10 second mile and though I had the urge to pick it up, I told myself to stay steady and the result was a 6:00 third mile. Not too shabby.  Then it was off to the weight room and a very tight legged hobble home afterwards.  Today was a 40 minute time trial on the trainer and I nailed it pushing some big gears and a decent cadence and 35 minutes off the bike.  I was floating on the run. Why was I floating on the run today?  I got my butt in gear and went to yoga last night.  Yoga is like lubricant for your joints.  My hip flexors and my hamstrings felt loose and my stride felt long and smooth.  Now that I'm 36, I notice two things become even more important as I age: stretching and weight training. I find I'm much more productive in the weight room right after a run because my endorphins are going and I find it less tedious.  Usually my legs are toast as I jog home from the gym but tonight...floating.