Hills and more hills

Well, this morning I got up early early and did my longest ever pre-work morning run. I set out for 5 miles which I really needed to do yesterday, but just got too busy and eventually too tired to do. It was low 40s and fairly humid since it apparently is supposed to rain today. I started out down Old Milton/State Bridge. The first mile was ok and I could tell I was feeling pretty good, despite the early hour and weather. I continued to the half way mark (which was on the down side of a large hill way past the Shell station) and diligently turned around to make my way back up that hill. At this point, it was maybe the 4th hill I'd gone up? 5th? Sheesh. Somehow, my little legs carried me back up till I was rewarded with a nice downhill (then more up hill/down hill all the way till the final .5) As I got to that last .5 of the 5 miles, I was feeling pretty good still and happy with my hill climbing! So, I decided to go ahead and continue the run back to the apartment, instead of finishing at the corner as usual. This got me to 5.46 so I ran just a little longer to get to an even 5.5. If only I didn't have to go to work, I would have probably gone for 6.

It seems that these early morning runs are good for me. I usually try to run late afternoon when I have the chance on weekends, but I find my energy is surprisingly high in the mornings, too. Of course, I'm sitting at my desk at work typing this at 9:45am and wishing I could just take a nap. I'm working at the running shop tonight, so it will be a long day ahead still. Oh well, at least I didn't compromise my run! I feel good about next month's 10K on Feb. 21st. Should be a nice race in fact.

Here's the nike+ graph for this morning (though I'm not sure why it shows so hilly. My speed didn't vary that much and the original graph looks flatter! I think the small box skews the actual graph.):