Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

9:00 a.m. run with Tina.  Sunny and cold, but a nice, clear day here in the valley.  8:20 pace overall for 6+ miles.  Splits: 8:51, 8:35, 7:37, 7:57, 8:30, and 8:32.  Pushed in a few places.

I don't feel too "Fast Running Blog" worthy today.  9 miles over two runs, but very, very slow.  5 miles at 5:00 a.m. in 48:58, the last 1.25 with Elaine.  4 tonight with Gina, to and from the track, with 3 miles at the track.  She wanted to run flat and easy and so we did.  About 11:00 minute pace.  35 degrees and a slight breeze made it feel colder.

About like yesterday with a 5:10 a.m. run for about 5 miles.  Met Elaine with about 1.5 left.  6:15 p.m. run with Gina on my standard route, turning around at 2 miles for 4 miler up Skyline Ave. and back.  She did pretty good on the hills, but we were quite slow.  Good enough for this time of year, just maintaining base mileage.  Sleep in tomorrow a bit.

6:10 p.m. run for 5+ miles.  24 degrees.  46:15,  9:10 pace.  Solo.  Full moon, light cold breeze.

5 miles tonight at 6:00 p.m.  Same route, same time, same pace, same temperature, same darkness.  Boy am I boring!  24 degrees tonight.  I'll probably wimp out for 5:00 a.m. tomorrow.  Maybe hit the treadmill or bag it until Saturday.  I'll bet Kelli toughed it out this morning!

Rest day.

10 mile run this morning.  I thought I was doing the smart thing by not running after I first got up in order to avoid the extreme cold.  So, I slept in until 7:30, had a leisurely breakfast and decided to run at about 11:00 a.m.  By the time I came upstairs to get ready to run, it was snowing!  (I thought the weather dude said it might snow this afternoon!!).  So, I ventured out anyway.  The snow gradually got worse until it was sticking to the roads.  I ran on the backside of Little Mountain, back to Skyline to the gate and then returned home via Loma Vista and Upland loops while the snow continued to stick.  Icy in spots, but generally the traction was good.  The Nike Zooms seem to have better lugs than the Asics 2140 I've been accustomed to.  Came home after 6 miles in 56:39 at a very easy 9:25 pace overall, stripped off the wet clothes and hit the dreaded treadmill for another 4 miles.  First time on that since about last March.  What do you think seemed longer, the 6 miles outside in the weather or the 4 miles on the dreadmill?  I started out at 9:00 minute pace on 1 or 1.5% incline, then increased it to about 8:30 pace by 1 mile and kept that until 3 miles.  The last mile I increased the pace by .1 mph each tenth of a mile from the 8:30 until by the last 10th I was going at 7:30 pace.  34:25 overall for the 4 miles, 8:36 overall pace.  More snow predicted for tomorrow and early next week.  Scheduled to run with Tina at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.  Hope the streets are clear.