Recovery Run Today.

It was another cold day here in Germany. But I hornswaggled a co-worker into a 5 miler at lunch. It was a good run, just not exactly perfect.

-Whenever I run with someone, I pick the pace up. Even though we both tried to control the pace and keep it slow we failed. We ended up at about 9:50 /mile which was 20 seconds per mile faster than desired. The really sad part is that we knew we were going faster than we wanted. We checked several times. And while it's great having an instantaneous pace on your watch, and calculating rough average pace in your head, it's another thing altogether to control that pace. Still, I was armed with the information, so the problem is in my head, not with any bit of kit.

-It's been cold here for a while. I can't remember the last time the temperature was above freezing for any length of time. So today, when it finally started to snow (it's been in the forecast for weeks, but never actually occurred) the light dusting nicely covered up the icy patches. There were a couple of instances of slippy-slidey, but neither of us bought it.

-I got some good mental satisfaction from the run today. Not necessarily because of quality, but mostly because the two of us went outside for a run, while so many others decided to stay in because of the weather. That probably says something about me.

-It's definitely January. The gym locker room was packed. (Another good reason to run outside.)

-The next two months will be telling regarding my dedication to the Paris Marathon. I backed out of a personal mental conception of running the Dublin Marathon last fall because I didn't think my work schedule was going to permit the necessary training. I felt pretty weak for doing so after the fact. Hence, I made an open, public and financial commitment to run Paris this spring. Now, of course the work schedule is miserable-far worse than last fall. I have at least three and possibly four trips between now and the end of February. I'm going to need to remain flexible and get the long runs and quality tempo sessions I need or I'm going to be in trouble come April. Because I'm going to Paris.

-Next time I say I slipped and fell, if I can't caveat it with something along the lines of 'even though I put screws in my shoes' I'm going to feel stupid.