Because of blisters, I wasn’t able to do my 18-mile training walk this past Saturday. Deb and I had planned to make up the mileage on Sunday because Big Sur is coming up soon.

Saturday afternoon while exchanging my shoes, George (one of the smartest runners I know) suggested I not make up the mileage because it could mess up our rest schedule. His recommendation was to continue with our schedule as written.

Well, today we had three 1-mile splits at a fast pace scheduled. We were fast! (OK, fast for us.) We did 14:23, 14:24 and 14:13. I think these are the fastest miles we’ve done since we started training. Not only were we faster, I felt better after the first mile than I have after the first mile of our last couple long slow distance days. (I was dragging last Saturday.)

So, obviously, George was right! I needed the rest. The real test will be when I’m at mile 18 of the 21-mile race — will I still think it was the right decision?

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