You can't stop me....

You can only hope to contain me.

This morning I woke up without the aid of an alarm clock. I could hear the wind kicking up a bit outside and quickly juggled my day around. After checking with the weather websites, the wind would die down later in the day and the temps would warm up slightly. So I made the easy decision to wait it out. I sat down with the Wingman and we had a leisurely breakfast together. He went off to work and I changed and went down to the basement to ride.

I didn't have a ride scheduled for today, but I still had some lingering hamstring soreness. I knew if I warmed it up I could stretch a little and feel better. I have a longer ride planned tomorrow so I kept it short and sweet today. 

As the day went on, the winds slowed down. I changed into running clothes and headed out for an 'easy' 6 miles. I knew I had to hold back today and stick to the plan. I had the best of intentions of running as slow as the plan dictated. I even glanced down at my watch early in the run and saw I was in the right speed zone. Too bad I was running uphill. Once I was running flat again, all bets were off. I certainly had a lot more speed in the tank and was holding back, it's just hard to hold back much more.

I planned 3 miles out and back. I knew I had it planned that the wind would be in my face for the first 3 and at my back for the run home. I made it to the turnaround and saw my pace. I was running ~15-30 seconds too fast per mile. And that was into the wind. Coming home I had a tail wind to assist me. And the music on my iPod was no help either in my pacing:

When this song came on, it was full steam ahead. The only thing that slowed me down was a fallen flag. There are flags hung along the roadway and the heavy winds knocked one down so I stopped to pick it up and roll it back on the pole. Someone will come along and hang the bracket back up, but for now at least the flag is not on the ground. I collected my karma points and continued my run.

Before I knew it I was back in my development and cruising home. Another 1/2 mile and I am at the door. I got inside and stretched my legs out. The hamstring definitely was acting up early in the run, but before I was at 2 miles it quieted down and let me extend my knee more easily. I iced it for a few minutes and hopped into the shower.

I am into such a groove this week. My mind is clear and I'm sleeping well. All good things needed to perform well. All I have to do is tackle cleaning the kitchen, organize my magazines that I have all over the place, go through my clothes, and brush up on my ortho skills. Hmmm, so much for the week off.