Recovery Shmecovery

This year's half marathon training plan includes 5 days of running instead of the 4 day plan that I was on last year.  I actually enjoy running, and the extra dose of running time does me good. 

HOWEVER, I'm told that moderation is key and a recovery run following the long run is a good way to work in some extra mileage without killing myself.  The problem is, it REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY irks me to go slow.  If I was some sort of lightning diva, it would be another story, but the suggested paces for my recovery runs are SO SLOW feeling I'm almost embarrassed to run on the treadmill, in the relative dark of my apartments tiny workout room, at 8:30 on a Saturday morning...and trust me, the odds of a conscious person seeing me and/or giving a crap are about the same as me running a marathon at a 6:00 minute pace--read "nil".

Still, I did scale it back pretty substantially on my recovery run today, at about a minute slower than yesterdays (insanely fast for me!) long run pace. What really irked me was this minute slower, less than half the distance run sucked about 900 times more than yesterdays glorious-stars-are-in-alignment run.  Okay, so today's run wasn't that bad, but when I find my mind wandering, or myself getting frustrated with how my body feels, I want to run faster.  It was a greater feat of will to keep the pace slow today than it is to push myself to go faster under most circumstances.  But I did it, and this is why I ran on the treadmill...because I could force myself to hold a pace without pretending that I "didn't notice" how fast I was going. 

Still, it is done, and I'm proud of myself for sticking with my assigned run rather than just doing the insanity that I craved.  I also did it on an empty stomach, which was probably stupid and made me more cranky than usual.  There was a bagel with cream cheese afterward though, which made it all worth while. 

It's nice today, so I'll be heading out with AMA to go do a leisurely bike ride.  I like to think of these rides as "walks on wheels", since we go at a sloth like pace.  Should feel good on the legs!