Cool Runnings!

AM - 3 miles with Sparky, average pace of 7:54/mile.  Started off nice and easy, about 8:30/mile, then slowly warmed up.  Had a bit of a rough night - Adam woke up croupy in the middle of the night and it took me a while to get back to sleep after that.  Although Lybi was actually up for a couple hours with him - what a sweetheart!  He was finally able to settle down after eating a popsicle and drinking some ice water.  I have some work to do tonight, so I am really hoping I will be able to get out for some more miles tonight.  I am going to register today for the Arcadia Run for Pride 5K, which I am very excited about - it is a flat course, basically out and back - out on one side of the canal, and back on the other.  Then I am also going to register for that 10K on the 15th as well, unless I do really crummy on the 5K, in which case I will do the 5K there as well.

PM - 3 more easy miles, average pace of 7:32/mile.  First two miles at 7:28 each, then the third mile eased up a little bit and ran it in 7:37.  All three miles felt nice and easy.  I think that I am really benefiting from the increased fitness right now, and am seeing it with my faster easy miles. 

AM - 3 miles with Sparky, average pace of 7:54/mile.  Each mile was faster than the previous.  The first mile was about 8:17, second mile was something like 7:56, and the last mile was about 7:20.  Not 100% sure of the splits, but it felt pretty good.  I need to do some speedwork either tonight or tomorrow to get a better idea of what I might expect to do on Saturday.

PM - 3 more miles, hard workout.  1.5 miles at CV pace - average 6:08/mile.  Then a quick break, then headed back, next mile felt easy compared to the first 1.5 - hit it in 6:45.  Then sped up again for the last 1/2 mile at CV pace again, hit the last 1/2 mile in 2:56.  Average pace for the entire run was 6:17/mile.  I was puffing pretty hard after this run, and it took me a long time for my body to slow down.  As a result, it took me longer than normal to fall asleep.  No more hard workouts at night - they keep me up!  I was glad to get this workout in, though.  Now I will have to see what I will be able to do on Saturday.  I am sure the adrenaline spike from racing will help me to run a little faster than I did this evening.

PM - 3 miles outside after dinner, average pace of 7:18/mile.  Felt good, no soreness from my CV miles last night.  I will probably be a little sore tomorrow.  Then 1.2 miles to the church for Webelos Scouts.  After Webelos, we went to help a family move into a house in the ward.  There were a lot of Elders there, so it went very fast - only 40 minutes.  Then I ran home from the move site back to home - 1.5 miles.  So not quite 6 miles, but I am satisfied with the mileage today.  Average pace to the church was 8:42/mile (I was running with a big old backpack, which really slowed me down).  Average pace coming back from the move-in was 7:28/mile.  That felt nice and easy too.

PM - 6 easy miles outside later in the evening.  Average pace of 7:45/mile.  The pace felt nice and easy, it was actually interesting to me to see the difference between 7:30/mile, which sometimes feels a little more strained to me, and 7:45/mile, which felt quite relaxing.  After I got home from work, I helped the boys carve their pumpkins and then we made dinner.  I didn't get to run until about 9:00, and then I had to run to the store afterwards and pick up a few things to make a chili for our ward's trunk or treat tonight.  I really love this idea - instead of the kids going around the neighborhood, where there are more dangers, we all pull into the church parking lot open up our tailgates or trunks, and the kids march around the parking lot to trick or treat.  There are always fun and games there, and we are having a chili contest.  This will be the one time of the year when our kids will get to load up on candy.  I'll have to go easy on the chili tonight since I am running tomorrow in a 5K I am hoping to win . . .

PM - 3 easy miles with Sparky at 8:24 average pace.  Took it nice and easy so that I didn't take anything out of the legs for tomorrow.  It was still fairly warm out - in the upper 70's.  The boys had a grand time trunk or treating this evening - Sam dressed up as a skeleton, Joey as a dinosaur and Adam as Superman.  There were 3 wards at our trunk or treat, so the entire parking lot was packed.  Lots of food - chili (of which I did not partake), hot dogs, root beer (and water), and, of course, lots of candy.  We had all had our fill after an hour, and I still had lots of chili left - there were tons of people who brought chili - so we just brought it home and will freeze some.  Looking forward to the race tomorrow.

So I had my 5K today - not the result I was hoping for, but I think there were a couple of factors:  1) it was pretty warm out and 2) I am still about 10 pounds heavier than I want to be.  Add to those to that I am probably still recovering from the marathon, and you have a recipe for a slower race.  We got there about 7:00, the sun was up and it was starting to heat up.  I ran the course once nice and easy for a warmup, then got ready.  As I lined up at the starting line, I overheard two guys talking about their 1500m times - around 3:50.  I kinda figured this was going to be a faster race than last year.  At the start, I was in about 3rd or 4th place, with the two speedsters already building a lead on everyone.  I had forgotten my Garmin, so I don't have any splits, although I have a feeling I may have gone out too fast and died at the end.  At about the 1/2 mile mark, a guy without a shirt put in a surge and caught the third place guy.  Another guy was running right next to me up until the turnaround point where he got ahead of me.  Right about 9:00 at the halfway mark.  I hung with him, and at about 2 miles, I started to pull away slightly.  At this point, I was really laboring with my breathing, and my legs were feeling kind of heavy.  I kept pushing, knowing I wasn't going to catch the 4th place guy, but hoping for a top-5 finish.  However, the guy behind me caught up to me and surged ahead with about 1/4 mile to go.  I couldn't keep up with him today.  Hit the finish line in 18:40, almost 30 seconds slower than my post-HS PR from earlier this year.  I was disappointed at first, but due to the reasons I listed earlier, I was pretty happy with my effort.  I need to start packing in the miles and shedding that extra weight.  I'm not sure that I can get down to 155 - we will have to see - but I am certain I should be able to get down to at leat 160.  I am going to be joining our local fitness center so that I can use their facilities and run during my lunch hour - this will let me get in an extra 5-6 miles per day and not have to run at night.  I will be running some more miles later on today.