Monday I took it easy and ran a recovery run. 6.5 miles out and back from my house down Kelly Drive. I passed Heather on her run back home and she gave me the iPod. Running with some music is almost always better than without, especially on recovery runs. Nothing really excited, just trying to work out the aches and pains I had from the Ugly Mudder. 50 minutes.

Last night Heather and I went down to the group run a little early and put in about 4 miles. My legs weren't feeling so hot all day at work but once I loosened them up with the easy miles things felt good.

Started the group run and I could see that Ian was itching to speed things up so I joined him and decided to run how I felt. If the pace we were doing wasn't to much of a struggle I'd just keep it up. First mile in 6:42 and things felt good. Craig and new guy Chris were also with us so we had a group if 4 cruising along.

Ian was slowly increasing the speed, bit by bit so you can barely perceive it. I am not sure if this comes naturally for him or if he knows exactly what he's doing and is just seeing what happens. In any case it's a good thing because I know I wouldn't have been running that pace last night without it. Second mile in 6:30 and things were really starting to pick up. Turned around and mile 3 split was 6:24. Ian continued to speed up while Craig, Chris and I eased off slightly. We came through mile 4 in 6:34 and Ian was out of sight. Damn that 6:34 felt good, in fact Craig and I commented on how we were conversing at this pace and a year ago it would have been nearly impossible to chat.

I felt great in the last mile, so with 3/4 to go I picked it up to try and get under 6. Ian had dropped back to catch up with us so he and I pushed it up the hill to the Art Museum. I gave a decent kick for the last 50 meters and finished with some gas left in the tank. Mile 5 in 5:53. Much faster than I expected and just another good sign that my speed is increasing. 9 miles in 1:04

On to another topic. I had my first dream about the Boston Marathon last night. Leading up to the Baltimore marathon a couple years ago I had several bad dreams, for Chicago last year I don't remember any. They are always very similar, I get lost on the course or I arrive late for the start. In reality this is impossible, I guess I could be late but I am to worked up to miss the race or oversleep and being surrounded by hundred of runners on marked course it's hard to go off track. However, in my dream it seems real.

I start off just fine but then kind of lose my way. I eventually find the course again but I am either way ahead of all the runners because of a shortcut, or way back in the pack having lost valuable time. It's nerve racking and I am relieved when I wake up and realize it was only a dream. I don't find myself really worrying about the marathon when I am awake but I guess my subconcious mind has other ideas. I just hope the dreams don't turn into a regular occurence.