It was a beautiful crisp and cold night for my run this evening.  The stars were out and there was a full moon. My headlight illuminated every breath and all was quiet. It was a fantastic, relaxing run.

I chose to run from home tonight so I could visit nearby neighborhoods and take in the sights of everyone’s Holiday lights.  I particularly wanted to visit the house that we all call the ‘Griswold’s House’.  Honestly, as you can see from the photo, the house is not quite as over the top as the house from ‘Christmas Vacation’, but it is quite impressive.  If you zoom in closely on the photo, you can see the best bit.  There is a cardboard cutout of Clark Griswold in the front window – great detail!!

My run workout was designated as an easy pace run.  It sounds obvious but it is critical to do such workouts at a EASY pace.  No matter how good you feel, you have to resist the urge to go faster.  The benefit comes from the time spend running not the effort.  A while back, I struggled with this and often pushed the pace a little.  We triathletes don’t like seeing slower paces on our watches or in our training logs but we have to get over it if we want to improve.

I kept my pace very easy tonight, which was important after my sleep deprived road trip.  In doing so I had an amazing run.  Loved the cold feeling on my face.  Loved seeing all the lights.   Loved knowing that, by controlling my pace to be easy, I am becoming a better triathlete.