I took yesterday off because my legs get tired and I struggle a little bit more on my runs when I run more than three days in a row.

I was on-call last night and had a pretty miserable night (I slept at the hospital after a 2am ER visit). Fortunately, I had a light day at work and was able to get home early and catch a quick nap. When I woke up, I was surprised to find 50-degree weather with sun, making it probably the best running day so far of 2009 in Chicago.

I took one of my favorite routes. It goes south from North Avenue through the Gold Coast past many cool mansions (including the original Playboy Mansion), then onto the lakefront path at Michigan and Oak, north on the path to Fullerton, then back home through Lincoln Park. It's a really nice run and on a day like today, it was just fantastic. I pushed it a little bit and ended up averaging 8:38 per mile. That's near my goal "race pace" for the half-marathon and fortunately I felt pretty good.

Today: 5.23 miles at 8:38 pace
This week: 11.9 miles
2009: 205.4 miles