Cool Runnings!

Lunch - it was so beautiful outside today that I had to run outside.  Weather was absolutely perfect - upper 60's and sunny, little breezy.  I ran my lunch run loop in the opposite direction because I was too impatient to wait for the traffic signal going the other direction.  Was able to maintain a nice easy pace throughout.  Average pace of 7:48/mile for the run.

PM - 1.5 miles with Samuel at 10:25 pace.  He was originally trying to get a smoothie, but it was fairly windy out, and that slowed him down quite a bit.  After that, another 0.65 miles wth Joey at 11:20 pace.

Lunch - 5.1 easy miles on the treadmill.  Started at 8:30 pace, changed the incline to 1.0 after 0.5 miles.  Increased the speed to 8:00 pace.  At 2 miles, dropped the incline back down to 0 for 1 mile, then back up to 1.0 for the next 2 miles.  Slowed back down to 8:30 pace at the end of 4 miles.  At 5 miles, dropped the incline back to 0 again.  Total time of 42:00, average pace of 8:14/mile. After the run, did 1:30 front planks and 1:00 on each side.

PM - ran 1.5 miles with Samuel, average pace of 9:57/mile.  He earned his smoothie tomorrow.  Then 0.65 miles with Joseph, average pace of 10:35/mile.  He earned his smoothie too.  Then 0.25 miles with Adam, average pace of 14:15/mile.

Lunch - 5.5 miles outside.  Since I am considering doing Pat's run in about 3 weeks, I took a look at the course and decided I could run most of it during lunch.  Made the mistake of hitting the start button on my Garmin before it had acquired a lock on a satellite - as a result, the first .25 miles of the run were not logged on the Garmin, and it messed up the first mile split (since the timer was still running) and caused all the rest of the mile splits to be off by .25 miles.  Had one mile split that was 6:55 due to a large downhill portion that I got down to 5:55 pace on without feeling uncomfortable or out of control at all.  Average pace for the run was about 7:25/mile.

Lunch - ran outside again.  It was very nice, but fairly windy (I didn't really notice this until the 2nd half of my run).  Ran part of the Pat's run course again with some tweaks.  The description of the course says it is flat, but that is patently false - there is a1/2 mile uphill where you gain almost 100 feet during the second mile, followed by a faily steep downhill where you gain almost all of the elevation back.  The rest of it is pretty much flat, though.  Anyways, as I was coming back and hit the wind head-on, I decided to kick things up a notch.  Mile 5 was  in 6:57, although the effort with the wind in my fact probably felt more like 6:40 or so, and then I kicked in the last .25 to finish in 38:21, average pace of 7:13/mile.  Felt very good, not too winded.  I think that my aerobic conditioning is definitely improving, although I really wish I could lose the weight I gained since St. George.  I'm afraid it's not going to come off until I get up to 50 mpw, and with my current schedule, that's fairly hard to do.

PM - 1.5 miles with Samuel at 9:47 average pace.  This is a new PR, and it was windy, too.  He did a great job, and I was very proud of him.  Afterwards, ran 0.65 with Joey in a huge PR for him of 9:42 average pace.  He was amazing - he just took off right when we started and was just pumping his little arms and legs so determinedly, and he was absolutely full of energy and spunk.  I think he's been holding back on me.  Afterwards, I took the boys out for smoothies that they had earned last Tuesday.

Lunch - hard workout.  Ran pretty much all of the Pat's run course (except for the part that goes into the stadium), plus the 2 miles to get there and back from my work.  Here is the course:  Lunch Run Pats Run.  I forgot to bring my Garmin today, so the only mile I know about for sure was the first one (just from experience).  First mile was about 7:10, I will count that as MP effort.  Hit the lap button on my watch at 24:38, and after mapping out the run, the average pace for that portion was 6:42/mile.  Last 2.33 miles was in 15:06, average pace of 6:28/mile.  Average pace for the entire 6 mile run was 6:37/mile.  I was pretty beat after this run, but this gives me a better idea of how fast I should be able to run for Pat's run.  The last 5 miles of the run were in an average of 6:30/mile, so I should definitely be able to do faster than that.

PM - 10 miles outside.  I really don't like running in the evening - I feel like I am already kind of worn down from the rest of the day, so my energy level is not as high, but I was determined to not miss running today.  I was originally planning on running this morning, but when I woke up, I was still pretty tired, so I decided to treat myself to an extra hour of sleep.  Then I took Sam to cub scout citizenship day, which lasted until almost 11:00, and after that took him to the Scout Shop to replace his neckerchief slide.  Our babysitter came and watched the boys (they actually got to go swimming) while Lybi and I went on a date - we went out to Applebee's and I had the fiesta lime chicken; then we went to Home Depot and looked at lighting fixtures, as she wants a new one for the boys' bathroom for her birthday.  The day went by extremely fast; I had to get in my shopping earlier today so that I could run after the boys were down, and next thing I knew it was 8:15 and time for me to head out the door.

Sorry for the long-winded explanation about why I don't like running in the evening . . . on to the run.  I had a feeling that my legs were going to be dead from my hard workout yesterday.  I was still feeling kind of full from the late lunch (we ate at 2:00), so my plan was to just take it easy.  After the first mile, I felt like 8:00 miles would be pretty good tonight, so I worked on keeping that pace.  For some reason I was fluctuating up and down by about 10 seconds/mile today.  At the 5-mile turnaround, my legs were already feeling kind of dead, and the muscles on the outside of both my hips were feeling tight.  At about 7 miles my legs and feet started to ache from the pounding, since my muscles were kind of worn out and not doing as good of a job as normal of absorbing the shock.  Finished the run right at 1:20:00, 8:00/mile pace.  Aerobically, I felt totally fine, not even out of breath in the least.  However, my legs were dog tired.  Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow.