I have been taking it easy this past few weeks and it has been a nice change of pace. This doesn’t mean that I’ve only been hanging out on my sofa but that all of my runs during this time have been easy.

Look at what you can find when you go out for an easy run -- dinosaurs!

Since the end of May I have been training for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon and the NYC Marathon with everyone being targeted to the goals I had for each of those races. That’s a lot of focus with little down time. I have enjoyed this three week period of just going out for a run without worrying about hitting a certain pace or other specific goal.

I got to run in Denver and really take in the scenery and now running in my neighborhood and feeling at peace with my running. This has been nice.

With that, I’ve noticed that I have been running better and that has put in the right frame of mind to start tackling my upcoming running goals, the big one being to PR or close to it at the Miami Half Marathon. I even added a new goal in the middle of that.

Yesterday, I sat down and plotted out my training plan for the Miami Half and realized that the Ted Corbitt 15k fell perfectly in with one of my long runs. I have only done three 15k races in the past and the last Ted Corbitt I ran in was not a good experience because it was so damn cold that day.  When NYC got hit with our Halloween snow storm the Poland Spring five mile race got canceled and I got a voucher to sign up for another race, I chose Ted.

Because I have never done particularly well in these 15k races, I want to try and change that and since this falls into the Miami Half training I’m hoping I can accomplish two goals but at the same time not put too much pressure on myself for this 15k because after all it is a long training run for the half. So, I really want to PR for this 15k but considering that each 15k I have run has been worse than my first one I know I’ll also be happy if I improve my time from the last two I ran.

I have one more week of easy running planned and I’m going to enjoy that and take that happiness into my training for this half. When I look back at all the other races that I got a PR I was running relaxed and enjoying it. That is a sign, if there ever was one! So I’ll