Happy Earth Day

I just wanted to take a moment and recognize Earth Day. I'll admit that I really didn't do much to celebrate, which is unfortunate. But it just didn't fit in my schedule. I had the dogs with me today so I couldn't bike to work. I drove. By myself. Can't get much worse...

At least I did get outside to enjoy this beautiful weather and admire the greenery. I know it's not going to stay green for long, so I'll enjoy it while I can. I had a long run to do today and I had to split it up because I just didn't have a big enough time slice today to do it all at once. So, 8.5 miles this morning and another 8.5 after work. Surprisingly I did them both in about the same time. I was expecting the second one to be much worse. I always run better in the morning, even if it's all Z2. I think it's because I'm not fully awake and therefore don't recognize pain or discomfort. I also had some Z4 which I saved for the afternoon and I'm always dead after these sets. I have to slow down to an 11 min. pace to get my HR to come down. So it kind of kills any average.

But they were good runs. Not much to complain about other than the fact that I had to split them up. But I once read somewhere that the overall benefit is the same. I believe the example they gave was that if you did 6 miles in the AM, another 6 in the PM, and another 6 the next morning, it would yield very similar results as running 18 straight. But there is that whole mental aspect that this doesn't account for. And that's a very important aspect when it comes to Ironman. But, in this particular case, I think there is something to be said for doing long runs after work. I know for me that I start out being mentally drained from work and sometimes just physically tired and I think this is great preparation for Ironman. The run comes late in the day when you're mentally and physically exhausted. So I'm sort of simulating it. I think it's a good exercise to do every now and then.

Complete random comment...I learned today that the word "questionnaire" has two n's. I never would have guessed this and I consider myself to be a good speller. I haven't looked up the reasoning or if there's any rule, but it certainly doesn't apply to "millionaire" so I really don't know what the logic is. And this is probably why English is considered to be so hard to learn. We're so inconsistent...