Cool Runnings!

AM - ran 3.5 easy miles with Sparky, then another 2 miles by myself. All at recovery pace - 8:31/mile for the 5.5 miles this morning. Will run with the boys either later this morning or this afternoon. As it is Memorial Day, I don't have to work today either. Legs are feeling better from the effort on Saturday. The sorest muscles are my quads and calves, and my calves are by far the sorest muscles. But thanks to my personal masseuse, I am doing quite well.

PM - Ran 1 mile with Sam in 10:37, then 0.65 miles with Joey in 6:56.  Sam's mile was interrupted by a spill onto the sidewalk - we walked it off, then resumed runner.  He was quite a trooper today, with a little bit of encouragement. 

(ProGrid Guide - 116.45)

AM - 2.5 miles on my own at 8:10 pace, then 3.5 miles with Sparky, average pace of 8:40/mile. I didn't realize we ran that slow, but Sparky didn't want to run any faster, and I didn't want to push him too hard. Legs feel good. I can still feel some lingering soreness in my calves when I run my hand over them, but overall not too bad. Coach Lybi and I have decided that this will be all easy miles this week with no increase in mileage from last week, and I will shoot for 50 next week, to give my body a bit of a break after the race. However, I consider it to be a very good sign that I am rarin' to go and every day, I want to run more miles than I have already run. Either that, or I'm just plain weird . . . :)

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel - he seems to run better when he is holding my hand - some psychological thing (even though he set his record on his own).  Then 0.65 with Joey.  He was really booking it, but caught the toe of his sandal right at the end and biffed it.  Poor guy :( 

(ProGrid Guide - 124.1)

AM - 2.5 easy miles by myself, then another 3.5 miles with Sparky.  Average pace for the total run was 8:17/mile, I averaged 8:14/mile for my run, and about 8:19-8:20/mile with Sparky.  Knee feels fine, I think I am going to stop mentioning it as it seems to be completely better.  Calves were a bit tight this morning, stretched them out good after the run.

On a side note, I got confirmation this morning that the animal I saw the other day was *NOT* a mountain lion.  During the run with Sparky, I ran right past the creature (er, dog) going the opposite direction.  It is a bit darker tan than a yellow lab and slightly smaller, has a dark muzzle, but didn't even give us a second glance as we ran past it.  I can't say the same for myself . . . that encounter certainly got the adrenaline pumping.  I just don't like dogs that are not on leashes.  They are too unpredictable.

AM - got to bed late, so I slept in and did not run this morning. Figured the sleep was more important.

PM - ran 7.5 miles outside by myself. The weather was lovely, if a bit warm - about 85 degrees, although it didn't feel that hot. Maybe that means I am acclimating to the heat due to increased fitness . . . in any case, my time was 1:00:08, average pace of 8:01/mile. Felt very good. My right achilles started to bother me a little bit toward the end of the run, I stretched it out good and will have Lybi scrape and massage it. I am leaning towards getting the actual scraping tools instead of using our wooden salad spoon or the blunt edge of a knife. I am also thinking about maybe doing the Provo River 10 miler or 1/2 instead of the TOU marathon - that would be easier to get to, and we could take the whole family, as opposed to just me going to the TOU 1/2 marathon.

(ProGrid Guide - 129.95)

AM - Ran 3.5 miles with Sparky, who appeared overjoyed to be able to run, after not being able to do so yesterday. Average pace of 8:12/mile, including a warmup mile of around 8:40. He did very well, no "dog" sighting today. I wore the sock on my right foot last night to help my achilles stretch a bit during the night, it felt much better today.

PM  - ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:07, only 1/4 mile of which I held his hand.  He did very well.  Then 0.65 with Joey in 6:45.  Later on, I ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill - started out nice and easy for the first 1/2 mile at 8:30 pace, then picked up the pace once I was warmed up.  Next mile at 7:30 pace.  Picked up the pace again for the last mile to 6:40 pace.  Felt good.  I think I have come up with the perfect idea - either Lybi or I will run the Provo River 1/2 marathon, and then one of us will run the St. George 1/2 marathon.  I don't think it will make a difference in terms of which of us runs which, although the St. George 1/2 may end up being hotter.  Either that, or one of us (probably me) would run the TOU 1/2 a few weeks after the Provo River 1/2 marathon, and I would just fly up alone.  We will have to talk about it and figure out what the best approach would be. 

AM - Ran 10 miles by myself, felt very good to get out (relatively) early in the morning and start the day off right. Started off nice and easy, then after the first 1/2 mile or so, got into a good grooove of running 8:20 miles up through mile 8. Then I started to get a bit bored, and decided to speed things up a bit and get in a little MP effort. Took a 1/2 mile to slowly ramp things up, then ran 1 mile at MP (6:49), then cooled down for the last 1/2 mile. Lybi scraped my calf and achilles last night, so that felt better this morning, but I am still experiencing some PF issues with my left foot. I need my new strassburg sock! Gotta call Steve and find out when it should be coming in - he had to special order one. Will run with the boys later on.

PM - ran 1 mile with Samuel in 10:09, then 0.65 with Joey in 6:46 (10:10 pace), then about 400 feet with Adam.  Puts my total mileage about the same as last week, and I feel ready to top 50 miles next week.

(ProGrid Guide - 141.6)