Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Nice and easy recovery run.  Not really.  My lower back was bothering me.  I slept well over the weekend.  Two naps and no trouble falling asleep at the end of the day.  I saw Surgical-Mask Lady putting on her surgical mask.  That was kind of embarrassing.

Time - 47:24 (avg. pace 8:27)

Temp - 75

This morning I thought my boy was going to be late for the bus.  So I had him hop on his sister's bike while I ran next to him.  We got to the bus stop and nobody was there.  Usually there's a pack of kids and parents.  So I ran 0.3 miles to the end of the block and then back.  By that time a few more kids had arrived.  Then the rest of them showed up, and AJ had a good time showing off his freshly shaved head.  I shaved him bald last night.  After the bus came I attempted to mount the bike and ride home.  It was kind of awkward.  Then Johnny-Come-Lately almost ran me over trying to get there before the bus left.  Haha.  Didn't make it.  When I got home I ran my neighborhood loop giving me just over four miles total.

Time - 30:59 (avg. pace 7:43)

Splits -

1 mile - 6:55

2 mile - 8:05

3 mile - 8:05

4 mile - 7:50

I got up earlier than normal today because I actually needed to be to work on time.  I brushed my teeth, shaved, got dressed.  Then I went downstairs to wake my boy up so he wouldn't miss the bus.  I saw his snakes needed water so I grabbed a cup and filled it with water.  He still hadn't got out of bed so I dumped a little on his forehead.  (He's used to that.)  Then I went outside and did my pre-run stretch routine.  I came back in and he still wasn't up.  So I yelled at him to get moving.  I did my Wal-Mart bypass loop and knew that if he was still there when I got back, he was not going to catch the bus.  Sure enough, he was still there and not even dressed.  My wife said she came downstairs and found him asleep on his chair.  So now I was mad because I couldn't be late, and my wife was going to have to take him to school 10 miles away.  I made him pay me $2 for gas money.  The usual punishments of grounding don't seem to be working, so let's see if hitting him in the pocketbook has any affect on him.  Any thoughts?

Time - 45:44 (avg. pace 8:09)

Splits - 8:24, 8:08, 8:13, 8:08, 8:14, 4:37

Q: What do you do when you see a 200 pound man barreling down the sidewalk?

A: You move out of the way as fast as you can!  That's a no-brainer.

Three little brothers and sisters were walking to school this morning.  Cute as buttons.  Dumb as doorknobs.  I kept thinking, "Any second now they're going to move over for me.  Any second.  Hello?  Giant man moving right at you at a high velocity.  Please move.  What are you staring at?  They're not moving."  At the last second I had to dart around them.  The littlest one looked like the little boy on Daddy Day Care.  So cute.  It was hard to stay mad at them.

Time - 24:46 (avg. pace 8:15)

Splits - 8:28, 8:22, 7:58

AM Run

This morning I met my Ragnar team to do some hill work.  Only one of my teammates showed up.  It was a fun time though.  We went to South Mountain.  That's a very popular place for runners, mountain bikers, and hikers.  The parking lot fills up quickly.  We got there at 6:30am, and it wasn't too bad yet.  I was quite proud of my parallel parking job.  I saw (close your ears allie) a coyote run across the road. 

We ran for 2 miles up the mountain, then back down.  The first mile had a net elevation rise of 170 feet.  We covered it in 10:20.  The next mile had a 340 foot rise.  That took us 11:54.  Coming back down that first mile took almost as long because it was so steep and rocky; 11:39.  Then we hit the dirt road and cranked out an 8:10.  We wanted to get 5 miles in so we ran on the paved road for half a mile (80 foot descent), and turned back around to finish up.  The last mile took 8:28.

It's been a while since I've done hills.  I could feel the burn in my calves.  The view from the top of the mountain was pretty.  I shoulda took a picture.

PM Run

I wasn't content with only 5 miles today so I went for 3 more this evening.  It was dark out, so I kept it nice and easy.  Plus I was wearing a cotton shirt and I didn't want to irritate my areola.  My splits were 8:47, 8:40, and 8:37.