Running on Autopilot

Well, that felt good.

I went into my run this morning thinking (knowing?) it would be a complete dud. As I continue to lengthen my long runs every Sunday, I assume that each one will be harder than the last. It's nice when it doesn't work out like that. Last week's 7-miler saw me counting everything (miles, minutes, paces), out of desperation for it to be over.

I had a girls night last night with my bestie, Steph. We ate Korean bbq, and then afterward got candy, soda, and sat down to watch Bridesmaids on DVD. I knew that was a bad idea the night before a long run, but I did it anyway. I dreaded my run this morning, thinking I would be uncomfortable, tired, and cranky the entire time.

Not so. I ran out to the 4 mile mark, turned around, and felt completely fine. After a while I realized I was on autopilot. I had found a sweet spot of a pace (although much too slow, in my opinion), and felt the flow. It was actually fairly amazing that it felt this good. I had only run about 7 miles in total this week, and I thought that would have hurt my run. Instead, I felt great, breezing through the run.

While I do believe that it is sometimes beneficial to monitor the many facets of running, doing it on autopilot proved this morning's run fun.