Last night's 5 mile run was my best run ever. I don't know why all of the planets seemed aligned for me, but I haven't felt such ease and fun in ages. I've been battling my asthma all winter, though I've tried to downplay it to myself, and last night's cool but damp weather was the perfect balm. Cool and dry kills me, and hot and humid makes me wheeze for days, but cool and wet seems to be the way to go. Also, for a change I managed to start out quite slow, and that seemed to make all the difference in the world. Top that off with just a general feeling of strength and having nothing in my stomach, and I felt like I could have run ten miles instead of five. It was just the perfect evening.

The night might have been helped my my Sunday weigh-in, which showed me down 2.5 pounds last week. The intuitive eating thing seems to be working for me, and what's most odd is that I ate a lot of what I wouldn't consider to be healthy food last week. I ate Indian twice last week, and cajun fried catfish, and a bar of dark choclate sprinked with pieces of amaretti biscuit, and I *still* lost 2.5? All I can think is that, for a change, my portion sizes were small to medium, rather than enormous. The best thing the "not being on a diet" idea has done for me is take away the frantic feeling I normally have about eating. Before, when I wanted to "treat myself" I would always shovel in as much as possible, with the misguided idea that the following morning I would start being "good". The only thing that got me was constant weight gain followed by a guilt-induced loss, followed by another gain. This really hit home for me in Friday, after work. I was driving home, and it occurred to me that I wasn't plotting about what restaurant Lia and I could go to that evening, because I not longer had the 'Friday night = be "bad" and treat yourself' idea. It sounded just as appealing to go home and have a cup of soup and half a sandwich and take a run, because if I was hungry the next day I could always go out and have a big meal then. It sounds disarmingly simple, doesn't it? Then why has it been such a revelation to me?

My half training continues. Yesterday's long run of 5 miles was completely doable, and according to my plan I'll be doing 7 miles by the end of the month.

This should be fun. :)