What a difference a little sleep and some breakfast can make. Charmaine came back from San Diego and made pizza. That’s much better food than I had eaten the whole week she was gone. Then we went to bed at a decent hour. Unsurprisingly, I was feeling pretty good this morning. I had a small protein shake about an hour before running. I think all those things really helped.

I started off pretty strong. I cruised up the hill past the church without much problem. When RunKeeper announced that I was 20 seconds ahead of pace at the 5 minute mark, I wondered if my GPS was acting up. No, I was actually doing pretty well. I figured that out when I was still ahead of pace at the 10 minute, 15 minute, and even 20 minute marks.

I still had a bit of a tough time going up the big hill and the sustained 1/2 mile climb through the first half of mile 3, but I didn’t “die” this time, and I was able to get back into some sort of rhythm along the top of Sandalwood. I was happy about that. I think I still need to work on coming up that hill faster and bringing it all home faster, but I’m starting to wonder if that means I need to add some more distance to my runs. I know I need to add distance eventually (the run at the end of the Spudman is 10k, for example). I’m just nervous about adding more, but I think it’s probably time. Maybe I just need to run more days per week. I’ll figure something out.

28:55 (finally a personal best)

It started raining/slushing again right after I finished running. I was feeling pretty good after the run and thinking of taking another short bike ride, but the weather refuses to accept that winter is over.