Time Is Flying. And Today, So Was I.

According to Einstein, everything's relative. Who am I to argue?

The marathon plays tricks with time in a lot of ways. When I'm running a marathon, the first six miles fly by. It seems like every time I look up, I'm passing another mile marker. Around mile eight or ten, time slows back to normal. Each mile arrives on schedule and all is right with the world. But somewhere between mile 17 and mile 20, time becomes a cruel, torturous force that works against me. It begins by making each mile seem longer and longer until each mile marker takes an eternity to reach. Then, by some paradox of time and space, while the miles start to last forever, the clock also starts moving faster. While I'm struggling just to feel like I'm still moving forward, the clock is speeding toward my goal time without mercy.

The marathon time warp extends beyond the race though. During the two weeks of tapering before the race, time becomes a similar paradox. Waiting for Race Day is like waiting for Christmas. The anticipation makes the days drag by. At the same time, there's so much going on, I look back on the past couple of days and I have no idea where the time went.

Yesterday was a Rest Day and I tried to shake off the funk of Sunday's run. I was hoping today would be a good rebound day and I wasn't disappointed.

Today's forecast listed a high of 86 degrees so I made sure to go for my run in the morning while it was still cool. I'm cutting back on the mileage this week but I want to keep my speed up. Plus, after Sunday's run, I wanted to see if I could make a pace in the 6:40's feel comfortable again.

I ran the Kircher Park Loop and the day of rest did it's job. I was back into the pace range I'm looking for. In fact, I wasn't paying close enough attention to my watch and most of my run was actually faster than I thought.

I was also greeted by the magical low-lying fog in that same field I talked about in last Friday's post. I like to think something really significant happened in this field in the past. There's just something special about it.

Here are a couple of short videos of the fog hanging over the field:

After work, I met Liz for our swim. It was quiet at the gym tonight and we had the lap lane to ourselves for most of the swim. Liz said she felt like she wasn't swimming as well as she usually does but I was feeling pretty smooth in the water. Of course, she was still swimming faster than me.

On our last interval, a little boy asked to share the lane with us. This little kid was good! For the first several lengths, he was swimming as fast as I was.

It was a reassuring day and I'm feeling good about the week ahead.

Monday
Goal For The Day: Rest.
Distance: 0.00 Miles.

Tuesday
Goal For The Day: Middle Distance.
Distance: 5.97 Miles.
Time: 39:40. 6:39 Avg. (6:57, 6:22, 6:35, 6:26, 6:43, 6:35*).
Route: Kircher Park Loop.
Conditions: 52 degrees. 7:15am.

Goal For The Day: Swim.
Distance: 1,000 meters (4 x 250).
Location: Fenton Rec Center Indoor Pool.

Notes: It was one of those special, effortless days! If only the marathon could be like today.

Daily Miles: 5.97 Miles.
Blog Totals:
  Run - 518.42 Miles.
  Bike - 144.45 Miles.
  Swim - 13,450+ meters.