TITLE: Sundown, You Better Take Care AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: January 14, 2005 9:15 AM DESC: My run this morning brought Gordon Lightfoot to mind, but I had it backwards. ----- BODY: Some days my run just seems hard. I was planning a fast eight-mile workout this morning, but after three miles I found myself slowing down. I did manage a couple more fast miles, my sixth and eighth, but I didn't feel fast. Then I checked my watch. 55 minutes, 56 seconds. Wow. That's just what I had hoped for. Now I feel guilty for having felt slow. Winter offers a different sort of running. I'm not training for any particular race, so running 35 miles a week or so for fun and to maintain fitness seems like the right thing to do. But this winter I've fallen into something of a plan: get faster. Between the ice we've had on the roads, a foot of snow on the trails, and this morning's -7 degrees outside, I've run on the indoor track more than usual the last few weeks. And I always run faster on the track. The result has been an increase in speed. If I can get faster over 35 miles a week this winter, maybe I can stretch the speed out over the longer miles I'll do next spring and summer. As I mentioned earlier, I'd love to make 8:00 miles feel like a walk in the park. A "slow" eight miles in 56:00 is a good start. -----