Call them easy runs, call them recovery, call them junk miles. Call them whatever you want but sometimes I have trouble getting up for these runs, mostly because they usually follow a tough day (race, tempos, speedwork) and I am not properly rested. It sucks when you start. And it’s slow and sometimes painful.

I started last week’s recovery run hating it and ended up having a blast. 
I was tired, slow, hurting, beat-down. Why do this? What’s the point of doing all these slow miles when I am so tired anyway and I am gonna hate it. 
Then, I was still tired, but warmed up, going slow, looking at stuff, waving hellos, singing, running for the fun of it, with no reason but to be on my feet, enjoying the park. It was osom.
Wow, I am bipolar or something.

Today’s recovery run was very different, I also started slow, dragging and all that, but had company so didn’t even doubt the run. It was fun through and through.

I need to get reacquainted with these runs. They used to be my favorite run of the week:

On Sundays, I head out at whatever time I decide to. There’s no alarms, no work, no rushing through it. I do whatever amount of miles I want to, at the pace I feel like, and there’s no route. No plan, no goals, no pushing; just plain FUN. The stuff dreams are made of. That run epitomizes my freedom. There’s not many things I would cancel my Sunday run for.
I wondered why can’t all my runs be like that. Just like in that time in-between training when I get to do whatever run I want to… I could ditch my training program now and just run when I feel like it, as much or as little as I please. Right?

(more here)

But when you are training for something, these runs can seem annoying. At least in the first miles. It’s just such a very different mindset when you are not training, and seems like I forgot how to switch back and forth…

Junk Miles – Love’em or Hate’em??