Time to amp up the mileage.

This spring I've been really laid back with my running. I don't sweat it if I have miss a day or have a crappy workout, I don't get myself worked up before races, and I've been running probably 20–30 miles per week, if that. Actually I don't even really know. So, yes, really laid back!

Well, I do want to keep that laid back attitude, but I'm thinking it's time to build up again if I want to be successful in my return to marathoning this fall. There are lots of slow, easy, base-building miles are ahead of me. I'll still be doing some races, many of the trail persuasion, or else local 5Ks, but I'm planning on cutting back on speed workouts for the next couple of months. I don't have any mileage targets in mind—just gonna run a lot, as often as I can manage it and as long as I feel good.

Because it strikes my fancy these days, I'm going to do some doubles (or two-a-days, as I call them), that is, more than one run per day. It's easy for me to fit these in as long as I plan ahead a bit. This morning, for instance, I ran to work. The shortest route is about four miles, but I made it 5.5 today because I could. As long as I keep a clean towel and other supplies at work, and remember to bring work clothes the day before, this works out beautifully. Since we carpool, I can count on a ride home (although I could easily just take the bus back home if I needed to). In fact, I could run home again and just bring the clothes home to wash the next day. And I am lucky enough to have access to a shower at work. Winning! It means getting up earlier, but not THAT much earlier, and it's a stretch of time during my day that is usually wasted sitting in construction/student traffic.

Of course, if Mark is biking to work that day, I might have to plan a little differently, and take the bus home, but it's still totally doable. Speaking of, MAN do we need to get back in the habit of biking to work...