Back in the early morning groove...

It's hard to believe that winter is essentially gone here in Georgia. For my state, this winter has been unusually (and I mean UNUSUALLY) cold and lingering. Typically, Georgia winters don't even require me to take a jacket out of the closet.

Big difference this year.

I realize that some of you live in the arctic grips of the northwestern United States, and that my claims of Georgia having anything related to "cold" is a joke, and you're probably right. But hey, that's what I have to work with, you know?

Anyway, the past week or two has been gifting us with 80 degree days and around 45-50 degree evenings, which is just perfect running weather in my book. This winter has really curtailed (okay, eliminated for the most part) my 5am runs on a daily basis, and replaced them with loosely-planned midday and late night runs. Now, this is fine I guess, I mean, I got the runs completed, right? 

But it not's the same. Does anyone else fall into this same problem, or am I just the strange one? (okay, I shouldn't have invited that one on myself...)

I'm so conditioned to early morning runs by now, it's been a very distracting (and often, frustrating) winter for me because of the instability of my training schedule from day to day. At least when I run first thing in the morning, the rest of the day is a piece of cake. It doesn't matter what happens during my day from that point forward because I got my training run completed. Everything else in the day is cake, right? Right.

Now that the weather and temps have moderated so much in the mornings, my early morning mileage buildup began this morning around 5am. It felt FANTASTIC to be out on the road in the wee early hours of the morning while everyone is sleeping.. that's just awesome to me.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have begun 10k training. So far, everything seems much easier than marathon training ever was. The mileage accumulation is less of course, but the intervals and speedwork sessions are definitely more intense. It does feel good to break out of the marathon training thing and do something different. It's got to be good for my body as well.

Oh, and I also just noticed in the new Runners World magazine (it just arrived in my mailbox this afternoon) that Dean K is now part of the Road ID team. I swear by Road ID and wear one all the time. It just makes sense to me to provide myself with the best possible chance of survival in the event of an injury/accident on the road. For $20, they're a cheap investment.

Here is the one I use and have used for years. Do any of you use Road ID or similar products to keep you safe on the roads? 

Happy Running, guys. I hope you have a great workout tomorrow.