Ran 1.5 miles with Sparky at about 7:30 pace (yes, we are keeping the dog, we have set some boundaries, and are going to work with him on barking at the neighbors - none of the animal rescue shelters would take him, and the only other option was the pound, which we did not want to do). Ran another mile with Samuel - worked with him to help him understand he can do much more than he thinks he can - held his hand and had him run faster than he normally does to teach him that his body can handle the faster speed. Sometimes I think he needs to understand the concept of being less than comfortable when he exercises. That was the point of this lesson. He ended up doing the mile about 1 1/2 minutes faster than he ever has before - just slightly more than 11 minutes. That is with the first 1/4 mile at about 13:00 pace as well. I was proud of him for hanging in there. Then another 0.5 miles with Joseph at just over 12:00 pace. I was proud of him as well for doing a good job. Then we had family home evening about testimony, played red light/green light, and then got the boys ready for bed with their nightly Harry Potter reading. We are on the second book right now - I try to make it more entertaining by doing impressions of the voices. After the boys were done, I headed out for another 3 miles. I started pushing the tempo shortly after I started, because I remembered I had to go to the bathroom, and I didn't want to turn around and go back. Was a bit worried after 1 mile, turned around, and really picked up the pace. First mile was 6:55, second mile was 6:21, and that was with the wind blowing in my face a bit. Got home just in time to hit the restroom, then went back out for what was supposed to be a cooldown mile, but it ended up being at 6:59. Oops. It actually did feel pretty good compared to the second mile. I guess once my legs get used to a certain pace, it's hard to get them to slow down until they are spent. Total time for the 3 miles was 20:15, average pace of exactly 6:45/mile. | 