During the school year, I try to get out 3-4 days a week at lunchtime. I have loops that range from 3.5 to 5.5 miles. I used to be obsessed with the stop watch but now feel content to time myself only occasionally and chastise myself if I slop into 8+ minute miles.

If I'm training for a race, I will work in once-a-week speed intervals on the track, hill intervals on a sand hill that's about two miles out or "powerpole intervals' - - run hard to a powerpole beside the road/jog to the next/run to the next and so on for the entire length of one of my loops.

[I was a HS XC / track distance runner who basically quit running in my mid-20s and didn't take it up again until my 40th birthday when my XC-runner daughter and wife went in to buy me a pair of wonderful Asics running shoes. I still wear mostly Kayanos.]