i stood barefoot in the middle of a city stream. ewwww. but it felt great. my shins are in revolt, and the rush of cold water felt a-ma-zing. anybody who has suffered the splint of shins can literally feel my pain at the description. anyway, it felt really good, and i think i did well by trying to stay off concrete and asphalt as much as possible. of course, that mostly means that i'm running the same trail through the park All The Time, but i haven't tired of the lush canopy and green air. i don't know how else to describe it... i cut my teeth running trails up in PA, so this little path is a great respite.

anyway, i did ~4 miles today, making sure to take it easy and not manage to hurt myself. i really should be keeping better track of my runs. saturday, i ran about five (doing about half on the trail again), and that hurt because when i wandered back up to roland, the grade was steeper than i was ready for. ouch. sunday, i knew that i needed to mix it up, so i did a brief warm-up on the trail (~1.5 miles) and then did 6 hills on a branch of the trail. that felt really good, again with a very controlled but concentrated pace. afterward, i sat on a rock in the middle of the stream, and then i ran home. all in all, i must have done ~2.5 miles. awesome. tomorrow, i plan on 4 miles (2 loops) at umbc. thursday is the great run with kim, and then friday will be either 2.5 or 5 miles at centennial park. depends on how many loops i want to do.

and i'm still uncertain about the philly marathon. i have all of my other races selected, and i just can't decide if i want to add the marathon. i don't know...