Yesterday was 7.37 miles on Rickenbacker in 93-degree heat, with enough exposure to make the bridge feel less like a training route and more like a solar experiment. Today’s assignment was the opposite: 35 minutes of recovery/easy running, conversational, comfortable, and preferably somewhere around Zone 2.

So I got on the treadmill and ran 35 minutes and two seconds. That turned into 2.75 miles at 12:45 pace. I rated the effort a 2 out of 10, which is probably the most important number on the screen. The assignment said easy, and for once I did not spend the entire run trying to negotiate “easy” into something more impressive.

TrainingPeaks still managed to award the run 65 TSS and an intensity factor of 1.06, which seems like an awfully dramatic interpretation of thirty-five minutes I described as “light.” I am beginning to suspect that some of these numbers have personalities of their own.

But the useful part is simpler: the plan called for 35 minutes. Garmin recorded 35:02. The effort stayed light. I felt strong. Nothing hurt.

After yesterday, that was exactly enough.

Yesterday was about enduring the heat. Today was about doing the easy work well. Both are part of getting me to Philadelphia. If you’d like to support the Parkinson’s Foundation along the way, you can donate through my Philadelphia Marathon fundraising page.