Chestnut Hill is getting old. You would think that a 10 day break from running the same loop around the neighborhood would break the monotony but it only served to increase it. The park on one side and poor suburban running with tight dark roads on two other sides hems in the neighborhood. This leaves me with only Mt.Airy as an escape but on any run under 8 miles that really isn’t feasible so I’ll have to map some new routes through CH to break things up.

Last night I ran a slight variation of my standard loop. The night was cool and calm, ideal for running. I fell into an easy pace and turned my music up. In the past it was often a challenge to keep my easy runs slower, around 8:00 pace, but with some practice it is now routine enough that I would call it my default speed. That is exactly what I’d hoped to do. 6.4 miles in 51 minutes.

My internal clock is still living on the west coast making it a challenge to fall asleep before midnight and even harder to wake up this morning at 5:45. I promised myself not to fall out of the morning running routine in the New Year so I dragged my butt out of bed. I also want to get out of the coffee before running routine to leave me more time on the roads before I have to leave for work.
This morning I was able to get out the door by 6:00 leaving me plenty of time to run an easy 8 miles. Things started out as more of a shuffle than a run but as I warmed up my legs found their way and I felt good. I tossed in 3 striders over the last 1.5 miles just to mix things up. 8 miles in 63 minutes.