It's over, man. Let her go.

6:20 am (yes, A.M.) 68 F, 88% Humidity

Didn't sleep well last night, but since it's my first day of "freedom" of not having to get the kids off to school, I had to get up and take advantage of the run before work.  I've got a long and busy day ahead of me so I'm glad to get the run out of the way so I don't have to run when its hotter later today.  Plus, we've got thunderstorms rolling in later today so higher humidity would just make it worse.  I've decided my goal this week is to run 6 days and 30 miles.  I need to establish some consistency and increase the miles or I'm not going to do well at the Half in September.

Splits:  9:01, 8:49, 11:34 (blah), 9:50, 6:56 (.78 - 8:54 pace)

Run was OK.  The thing with running from home is that no matter which direction I go, I start off with a hill.  Was feeling a little sluggish so I had decided to go about 5-6 and just take it relatively easy.  I ran to about the 2.1mi mark and stopped for a quick rest.  It was right at a cemetery so I decided to take a little run through part of it.  It was nice but the thought went through my head.  What if I were to keel over right here running through the cemetery.  How weird would that be?  I think had we not watched Beavis and Butthead Do America (as a family) last night I wouldn't have thought that.  My wife and I would watch B&B occasionally when we were early married.  It's so stupid it's funny.  I knew it was a bad decision to make that a family affair about 1/2 way through when my daughter and son started talking like Cornhulio.  Oh, what have I done?  Good thing school is out so that my son won't be sent home early.

Anyways, finished the run OK.  Walked a couple of times, but these hills are killers.  I think I do OK on the hills but I'm not real fast yet.  I always make it my goal to run up the hills without stopping then if I need to, walk a little on the downhill. I figure I'm going to die when I run in UT. My goal will be to maintain a 15:00 mile.  :-)

Happy Monday, everyone!

I had to be near my phone today but still needed to get my miles in, so I ran the 10k program on the treadmills at work at 5:30pm.  The last time I ran it was in March 2010, I think, and my PR for the program was 57:43 from July 2009.  Today, I ran it in 51:34 which is a huge PR...and I even walked twice for about 15 secs.  :-)

I don't enjoy running on the treadmill since it always feels like I'm running faster/harder than the speed/pace shows.  I tried to maintain about a 8:00 pace throughout, including the hills, but was averaging more around an 8:20 or so. The final 1k I decided to push it and finish strong.  The profile for the last 1k is 1% (.2k), 2% (.4k), 4% (.2k), 0% (.2k).  I went into this 1k at 8:00, increased to 7:30 for the 4%, then finished the last .2k at 6:53.  I was pretty tired after this run (mentally and physically) but recovered pretty quickly.

I couldn't understand why I could run a 50:00 10k in a race but couldn't come closer than 57:00 on the TM.  Most people say the TM is (physically) easier since you're just moving your legs not really pushing the ground since it's moving anyways, but mentally harder since you don't have the visual stimulation like when running outside.  Most of the time, the fans are on the TMs, but today I guess I picked a bad spot since I felt no breeze!  I was sweating like crazy.

Good run and I'm glad I got the miles in.  We hit the drive-in to see Marmaduke and Iron Man 2.  I figured I'd sleep through Marmaduke and watch Iron Man, but I ended up watching Marmaduke.  It's actually quite entertaining (with the exception of the animated dance at the end).  I'd seen Iron Man 2 before, but that's a great show and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.  Then came home and crashed.  :-)

I went to the track to run during my daughter's mutual.  Scouts is out so that means I'm done for the summer too!  We still have camps, but at least the weekly responsibilities are over.  I love scouts, but the weekly preparation can be tough sometimes.

I started to get a twinge of pain in front of my right hip yesterday...maybe a little to the outside, but close to the front.  I'm not sure if this is the IT Band issue I've heard about from others, but it was bothering me some more today, so I took it pretty easy.  Averaged 8:30, so it wasn't too easy, but I hope easy enough.  I got a little pain in my right butt toward the top, but that's not much of a problem.  I gotta get some more core and back strengthening work in for sure.  Tomorrow may be a cross train day.  I'll still run a few miles since I've got my goal of 6 this week.  :-)

Anyways, I did something at work that made me feel like an idiot, which reminded me of this video.  Not the boyfriend part, just the idiot part.  :-)  Enjoy!

Yeah, that's right, I got a mile in.  I'm not missing a day, so I jogged from work to my car.  A family issue got in the way so I had to head home early and didn't get my planned workout in.  Tomorrow is car-free friday, so I'll be riding my bike to work.  Weather looks clear, so it should be fun.

Biked in to work this morning.  It was nice cool weather.  Ran this evening.  Forgot the Garmin, but mapped out it's a little over 3 miles. Biked home right after. My booty is officially sore.  It's been since late last year that I was on my bike and the saddle is fairly narrow.  The route I took was OK.  A hill right at first (of course), then a downhill and the ride on the flat trail to work.  It is about 6 miles each way, so no big deal.  When I got to work I thought my groin muscles were going to die.  Going home wasn't as bad that way, but it was hotter and I had just finished running.  I don't know how my bro ever did the Half Tri.  I couldn't imagine swimming, then riding, then running a Half.  He's a stud...

So I get home and we decide to go to the Chinese restaurant with the Mongolian BBQ.  SOOOO good.  I totally over ate, thought I was going to lose my eyesight in one eye and then had it all go through me before we left the restaurant.  It was a great meal!  :-)

Today was a struggle.  I had planned on a 6 mile "long run" and that just wasn't happening.  I got up later than I had wanted to (tough night), then was delayed actually getting out.  It was 10:30am before I left and it was warming up fast.  It was 83* when I left and only getting warmer.  I've got a pretty good "nerd tan" going on except for my legs which have a little bit of color on them from my running, so I need to round things out some.  I ran for the second time this season half naked.  I'll let you guess which half. 

The legs were lead and I had to walk a few times on a fairly flat course (after the 1/2 mi hill).  I got in my 6 runs this week, so I'm stoked!  I got a little sun but not enough in the 30 mins or so I was out.  How am I supposed to look good in my FRB singlet if I don't get a good tan going on?  I can't run in t-shirts all summer then do the singlet thing in Sept and look like an idiot!  I'm sure I looked impressive, a middle aged bald dude with a pudgy stomach, flabby pecs and fat bouncing up and down on his back.  The only thing that saved my ego was that 90% of the people on the street were overweight, many were smokers, and a lot looked like they should lay off the beer too.  One day I'll have a six-pack if I can just lose this fat!

After the run it was a day of moving stuff and getting the garden boxes ready to go.  Now, I'm ready to collapse into bed so I can get up early enough to get to church on time.  Nite all!