Taking Advantage

This is what the 5 day forecast looks like:

Tonight Feb 17

Fri 18

Sat 19

Sun 20

Mon 21

Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Few Showers	Partly Cloudy
48°F	53°	54°	42°	44°
High	High	High	High	High
30°	36°	37°	27°	29°
Low	Low	Low	Low	Low
Chance of Precip: 0%	Chance of Precip: 10%	Chance of Precip: 10%	Chance of Rain: 30%	Chance of Precip: 0%

Why am I giving you a weather report? So you can understand that the last 5 days before... have been even NICER!!! No, really, believe it.

So I have taken advantage of the beautiful weather.

Do you know what happens when you have 60 degree days and you live only 7 blocks from work? Lunchtime runs. I start from work, and run until I need to be at home to shower and walk back to work. Perfect system. You know what else is so perfect about this system? I can literally see my running improve. The first day, my run was short (distance) because I ran out of time before having to head home and shower. The second day... just a little bit longer. The third? Even longer. It is the greatest motivation tool... watching an actual progression of betterment! (Is that a word?) Tomorrow? Should be even better.

What's more... while perusing the dance forums, I learned that the best cross training for Irish Dancers is to mix distance and speed. Sprints are great because thats what we do when we compete. We literally "sprint" through a dance, rest then "sprint" through another. Since I cannot run alone with my tunes to keep me going, I switched over to my dance music near the end of my run yesterday to try out "sprinting" for the length of my steps. It was nice! Counting out four 8 counts of music totally distracted me from my burning legs and lungs. Having the short rest between steps or "sprints" was perfect and let me cover more distance in my normal lunch hour.

I am looking forward to continuing to push the distance during my lunch runs and sprint through my dance timing. Hopefully it will result in longer runs and better stamina during dance. Fingers crossed!