Does 5 Days in a Row Make a Habit?

Today marked 5 days in a row of running. Granted its no great feat standing on it's own, but 5 days in a row is 5 days in a row! Sunday I ran just a driveway further than Saturday and did that in 29:14. That was a pretty hot run and my quads were still barking at me from the Day 0 run. But, I got it done and I was pretty well chuffed to hit 3 days in a row. Yesterday was a lesson in planning (or not planning.) By the time I had time to run it was stupid hot outside and I just don't play well in the heat. I fired up the treadmill and knocked out 3.1 miles at 1% grade. That included 5 minutes of warmup and 5 minutes of cooldown with 25 minutes of running sandwiched in between. As you can tell, I'm not exactly breaking any landspeed records. (But I may be redefining how slow you can go and still call it running.) Regardless, with the Rifleman watching and killing bad guys in front of me, I was able to maintain the effort and even pick it up a little at the end. I was running a slightly faster pace on the treadmill than I have outside and that got my legs to thinking a little more about running and less about the 23:30 hours a day I'm not running.

So, that brings us to today. #5. In a row. How about them apples? I headed out the door with my iPod blaring out the latest in 1920's string band music and poured myself into another run. Hurrican Gustav spared our area entirely and was even nice enough to deliver us some drier air and winds out of the North. That was pleasant. I headed out with the idea of running the same route as Sunday. I'm going to hold that distance until I naturally negative split it. With the out taking me into the teeth of the wind, it was a little hard to get some rhythm going. But, with a little help from the bluegrass gods of mandolin I found peace in the iPod and some rhythm underfoot. I noticed that I immediately started looking for the pace I held on the treadmill. It was tough at first, but my legs found the groove and we trundled along to the end of the paved road. I hit the turnaround and walked for a minute (just like Sunday, no cheating the splits) and only had to pause long enough to go Cesar Milan on a little dog that had escaped its yard. Once we had determined that he was not the boss and had not won our confrontation I was back underway and keeping a tempo. For some reason, it was a little tough maintaining momentum on the way back, but I kept chastising myself whenever I felt the effort sag. I rounded the turn for home and glanced at the stopwatch, this was going to be a big win. I hit the end at 27:40. Now, I'm going to have to go a bit further tomorrow.

M