Same Time, Same Channel

Progression run: 8 miles easy, but with the last 10 minutes moderate.

Weather: 48°F, 23% humidity, wind 9.2 SSE.

Motionbased.com says the wind was 9.2 at Centennial Airport, which is about 10 miles from where I live, but I think it was windier than that here when I was running. My hat blew off twice, the second time just as I was entering an intersection right in front of a car that was waiting to turn right. Fortunately he saw me and waited for me.

In the original training plan I'm using it didn't have yesterday's 10 mile progression run and today's 8 mile progression run next to each other they way I did it. It had 6 miles easy with one short hill sprint today and the 8 mile progression run tomorrow. However, I switched it around to put the easier workout on Friday because I have to do my long run on Saturday, whereas the original schedule has the long run on Sunday with a rest day on Saturday.

My easy pace today was a little faster than my easy pace yesterday. I thought my moderate pace was slower than it was yesterday, but looking at my splits, I guess it wasn't. But it felt easier. I guess that's because I only had to do it for 10 minutes, not 5 miles. In an any case, the splits for the first 7 miles ranged between 10:05 and 10:58, while the 8th mile was 8:55, and the last 0.14 of a mile was at 9:08/mile pace.

I ran much later in the day than I normally do on a weekday because I've got the day off from work. I work tomorrow, so I'll have to run early tomorrow morning. And next week I've really got to get back to getting up earlier because the kids go back to school. It's so hard for me to get up early these days because the son doesn't rise until about 7:30.

Easy run with one short hill sprint. Average pace: 10:33/mile.

Weather: 42°F, humidity 36%, wind 10.4 (avg) 13.8 (max) SSE

This was a windy run, I was tired, and I went fairly slowly. I didn't feel like doing the hill sprint when it got time for it, but I did it anyway and managed to go 10.13 seconds @ 6:45/mile pace.

I hope I have energy for a long run tomorrow.

Long run. Average pace: 10:07/mile.

Weather: 28°F, humidity 77.3%, wind 5.2 mph SSW.

The humidity actually increased slightly during my run and now it's snowing. I'm glad I got the run finished before the snow started.

I live just south of the county line between Douglas County and Arapahoe County. I usually run east, west, or south from my house and stay in Douglas County. I decided to do something different today and run north. I didn't have a route planned, so I decided to just go four 7 miles then turn around and come back. I was able to go north for about 5 miles, but then the route I was on ended, and so I turned east for a couple of miles. There was a gas station at about the place where I turned around, which was forunate for me. I made a pit stop.

The elevation profile of my run looks like a W with the ends higher than the point in the middle. The initial going north part was mostly downhill and then the going east part was uphill, and of course the west and then south were the opposite. The uphill at the very end of the run was really hard.

I'm glad to have completed my first week of official marathon training. I might revise my training plan a little before next week. I switched Saturdays and Sundays from the official plan so that I would have my long run on Saturday and rest on Sunday instead of vice versa. Because of that, I also switched Thursdays and Fridays so that I would have an easier run on Friday before the long run. Now I'm thinking I should switch Tuesdays and Wednesdays because I currently have relatively hard days on Wednesdays and Thursdays and it's not good having them next to each other.

Easy run with 2-10 second hill sprints at the end. Average pace: 10:56/mile.

Weather @ 6:15 am: 17°F, humidity 57%, wind 8.6 mph (avg) SSE

My easy pace was slow today. I guess I needed a recovery day after last Saturday's long run. We got about an inch or so of snow on Saturday afternoon/evening, but a fair amount melted away yesterday, especially in places that had been shoveled. So I had clear sidewalks for more than 1/2 of my run, but there were big sections that were snowy/icy, specifically one street that I was on for about a mile, and the bike trail that I was on for aboutg a half mile at the end of the run. Fortunately, the hill where I do the hill sprints (and which connects to the main bike trail) was clear, probably because it is south-facing.

I goofed up and hit the start/stop button instead of the lap button at the start of my first hill sprint, so I don't have stats for that hill sprint. The second hill sprint was 10.18 seconds @ 7:28/mile pace. The first hill sprint was probably similar.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to do 12 miles with the first 6 easy and the second 6 moderate. I'm a little apprehensive about doing such a long run on a weekday. I'm going to have to get up really early to get it done before work. I'm thinking that I'll do two 6 mile loops, maybe the same loop twice, or maybe two different loops rather than venturing too far from home. If I run too far in one direction I have to deal with more hills. And it just feels more comforting to be relatively close to home the whole time.

Objective: Progression run - 6 miles easy, 6 miles moderate

Weather from 5:15-7:15 am: 27°F, 41% humidity, wind 8 mph NW

My mile splits for the first six miles ranged from 10:53 to11:34. It seems that when I'm doing a relatively long progression run, I run the easy part really slowly in anticipation of having to speed up, slower than I go when I'm doing an easy run of the same length or seven longer.

My mile splits for the last six miles ranged from 8:32 to 9:41.

I went out wearing a hooded sweatshirt and two pairs of gloves (among other things, but these things are pertinent to the story). I knew right off that the sweatshirt was too much, and I took it off after the first mile. I thought about passing by my house at some point and dropping it off, but I didn't do it. Instead I tied it around my waist. A little while later, I took off the outer pair of gloves and put them in the pockets of the sweatshirt, the right glove in the right pocket and the left glove in the left pocket. I ran like this for quite a while and then at the end of the 9th mile, I took off the other pair of gloves and put them in the pockets, right in right, left in left. At the end of the 11th mile, I wanted to put one pair of gloves back on, so I reached in my pockets and found no gloves in my left pocket. I had dropped both left gloves somewhere along the way. I continued on and finished the run, then when I got home I got in the car and drove around for a half an hour peering at sidewalks looking for my gloves. When I had given up and was heading home I spotted one of the gloves and stopped and picked it up. It was from the outer pair of gloves. I looked all around but couldn't see the other glove. I'm worried if they both fell out at the same time, because I found the one glove near the curb of a busy intersection and I'm worried that the one glove might have gotten run over and carried away by traffic. And the missing glove is a smartwool glove liner that I got for Christmas. I know that I lost that glove somewhere between the end of the 9th mile, when I took it off, and the end of the 11th mile, where I realized it was gone, so I'll probably run that section tomorrow and look for it. That will make tomorrow's run a little longer than I had intended, but oh well. I was going to run short tomorrow because I'll need a recovery day after today's run, and I need to prepare my son's birthday breakfast. I guess losing a glove, even an expensive one, isn't the end of the world. Still, I would like to find it.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:26/mile.

Weather at 7:00 am: 39°F, 41% humidity, wind 12 mph NW.

I ran a loop that included the two mile stretch within which I lost my glove yesterday and . . . I found my glove! It was on the grass right beside the sidewalk at the crest of a very small hill. Yippee!

I just ran easy today, and it didn't feel appreciably different in terms of effort than the 6 easy miles from the first half of yesterday's run. However, all of my mile splits today were faster than any of my easy miles yesterday and slower than any of my moderate miles yesterday. I was surprised how good I felt today after yesterdays hard workout, but that's not the thing I'm wondering about. Was I so slow on the easy portion yesterday just because I was anticipating having to speed up, or is the difference that I had my face covered during the easy miles yesterday and I didn't have my face covered today? I'm wondering whether covering my face restricts the flow of oxygen to the point that it forces me to run slower. Just a thought.

I got a late start on my run today because I had to make a birthday breakfast for my son and it needed to be ready at 6:30. I didn't want to get up early enough to be done with my run in time to cook breakfast, especially since I didn't get to bed early last night.

Progression run - 8 miles easy except last 10 minutes moderate. Average pace: 10:16.

Split times for miles 1-7 range from 10:12 through 10:56. Mile 8 - 8:42.

Weather at 5:50 am: 37°F, 53% humidity, winds 6.6 mph SSE. 

I was a stupid idiot and could have gotten myself killed this morning. There are three places on the route I ran today where I have to cross a busy street, each time at a light that has a walk signal. I stopped at the first one and hit the button for the walk signal, took a drink and then looked around and not could see any cars in either direction, so I headed across the street against the light. About halfway across the street, I saw a car crest a hill to my right (I hadn't noticed the small hill in the dark) and speed towards me. I poured on the speed and ran the rest of the way across the street (the street is about 8 lanes wide) as fast as I could and avoided getting hit.

I was berating myself for being stupid and vowed never to cross against the light again and then I got to the second place where I needed to cross a busy street (not quite as big or busy as the first one). When I arrived at the intersection, the light was green in the direction I was going. Not wanting to stop, I started across the road. I hadn't gotten very far across the street when the light turned yellow and it was red before I got to the other side. To my good fortune, the car that was in a position to hit me was stopped waiting for the light, saw me crossing in front of him, and waited for me.

Lesson finally learned, I waited for the walk signal at the third crossing (which was the same street I had crossed on the first crossing, but at a different point).

I think I'm going to have to run really early tomorrow morning because I've got a conference call for work from 7 to 8 (I hope it doesn't go the whole hour), and I've got to get my son to school at 8:00 for Math Olympians and go to Donuts with Dad (though I'm neither Dad nor should I eat a donut) with my daughter at the same school at 8:00. I'll need to have the run done and be all dressed and ready to go by 7:00. I better be running by 5:00.

Easy run with 2 hill sprints. Average pace: 10:48/mile. Hill sprint #1: 10.15 sec @ 6:48/mile. Hill sprint #2: 9.8 sec. @ 6:44/mile.

Weather at 5:35 am: 37°F, 53% humidity, winds 5.8 mph NNE.

I didn't manage to get up as early as I had intended, but I did get the run in, do my conference call, and get the kids to school in time for Donuts with Dad (shame on me - I ate a donut). I showered and was dressed but not completely ready before the conference call, ate breakfast during the conference call, and then finished getting ready after the call because it only went 1/2 hour instead of the hour it was scheduled for.

This is the first time I've done hill sprints in the dark. I've always been out a little later in the morning on days I've done hill sprints, I guess. So it was a little more guesswork about how far up the hill to run because, though I had the headlamp, I couldn't see all that well.

I've decided that it's not the face covering that makes me run slower some days. Some days I'm just more tired or something and just run slower. Today was one of those days. I've had kind of a high mileage week and yesterday was a rough day. At this point I'm thinking that maybe I should do 14 instead of 16 tomorrow. The "official" training plan says 14, but when I customized it for myself I bumped it up to 16 because I've done 14 the last couple of Saturdays. But my weekday mileage is higher this week than previous weeks and higher than it would be with the "official" training plan because I did 5 miles on a day that was supposed to be a rest or cross-training day.

Long run. Average pace: 10:05/mile.

Weather from 8:42 am to 11:35 am: 33.8° - 39.2°. Humidity 40%. Wind 7 mph SW.

This turned into the run where I saw things I had not seen or noticed before. I was on the Highline Canal Trail and I had gone about 4 miles and was wishing for a bathroom. I was near my friend's inlaws' house and my friend had told me I could stop there for the bathroom if I ever needed to, but I was confident that I could remember which house it was, so I kept going. A little bit later I came to street the the trail crosses. I was wishing that there was a gas station on the street, but it's in a residential area and there are no businesses. However, as I approached the street I noticed a small parking lot. Because of the lack of businesses of any kind I figured the only purpose for the parking lot was to provide access to the trail. And then I noticed a port-a-potty in the parking lot. I'm sure it's a permanent fixture there. It was like I was wishing for a bathroom, and *poof*, one magically appeared. It even had toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

When I started out on the run I was undecided about whether to do 14, 15, or 16 miles. I figured I'd run 7 and then keep going if I felt like it to either 7.5 or 8 and turn around and whichever of those points I felt like. After the bathroom stop I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to go all the way to mile marker 8 and then turn around.

A little while later I saw something else I hadn't seen before on the trail. A man riding a horse and leading another horse. I knew that horses are ridden on the trail sometimes because I've seen evidence of it, and I've seen horses in fenced areas adjacent to the trail. I had just never seen a horse on the trail before. And then a little while later I heard some roosters crowing. I looked over and noticed a little pen with chickens in it that I had never noticed before. It's a little ways from the trail and there are a few trees in the way, so it's kind of hard to see, but the roosters were making enough noise that I noticed it today.

It's funny to me that there's this semi-rural area in the middle of the Denver metro area.

When I was finishing the 10th mile, I felt like slowing down, but I remembered something I read in Daniels' Running Formula last night that said, essentially, if you feel like slowing down, speed up. So I decided to pick up the pace just a little bit. I did that and found that I could maintain that pace, so I ran the slightly faster pace for the remaining 6 miles. Not to bore anyone, but to illustrate what I did, my splits were 10:52, 10:43, 10:10, 10:01, 10:28, 10:19, 10:24, 10:11, 10:26, 10:15, (here's where I picked up the pace) 9:56, 9:46, 9:32, 9:40, 9:32, 9:14. So what was supposed to be a long run at easy pace turned into a 10 easy/ 6 moderate progression run. I put those 6 miles in fast miles even though for a lot of people they wouldn't be fast, but for me in a run of that length, they were fast.

This is the highest mileage I have ever run in a week.

Recovery run. Average pace: 10:50/mile.

Weather at 5:30 am: 27°F, 87% humidity, wind 18 mph ENE, about an inch of fresh snow on the ground and snowing steadily.

I was glad that I only had a short run planned today. Today would have been a good day to have yaktrax or screws on my shoes, but alas, I have not acquired either of those things yet. But it wasn't too slippery. It wasn't too bad running in the snow except when I was heading into the wind. When I was heading into the wind I kept my eyes open just a tiny slit so that I could see where I was going. The snow got deeper as the run went on and I had a hard time telling the difference between the sidewalk and the road. There was one stretch that I thought I was running on the sidewalk, but when I got to a cross-street, I realized I was on the shoulder of the road. Oh well. And twice in the neighborhood I slipped off the sidewalk, but didn't fall.

I'm glad I ran early. There's a lot more snow now than there was when I ran. I've got a longer fartlek run scheduled tomorrow. I'll have to see what happens with the snow and may end up on the treadmill tomorrow.

Objective: Fartlek Run - 10 miles w/8 x 20 sec. @ 3K pace.

Weather at 6:00 am: 26°F, 57% humiditiy, wind 6 mph SSW.

The sidewalks/roads were not condusive to a fast pace this morning. For the most part, they had been shoveled or plowed, but a patchy layer of snow/ice still remained. Some areas were better than that and some were worse. I had to trudge through a fair amount of snow, especially when crossing side streets where the met the road I was running on. I sometimes switched between the sidewalk and the shoulder of the road, whichever was clearer, but had to jump over a pile of snow plow gunk in order to do so.

I ran two miles to warm up, and then ran faster for about 20 seconds at the beginning of each remaining mile. It wasn't always precisely at the start of the mile because I would have to wait until I had a relatively clear stretch of road in front of me. My training plan says to run the faster sections at 3K pace, and according to McMillan, my 3K pace is 8:14. However, it was all I could do to run fast and keep an eye on the time so that I went for about 20 seconds. I had no idea what pace I was running. It turns out I ran quite a bit faster on those bits than I was supposed to. I didn't time the first one with the lap button, but my paces for the other 7 fast 20-second bits were 7:01/mi, 7:01/mi, 6:42/mi, 6:38/mi, 6:51/mi, 6:40/mi, 6:06/mi. I don't know whether it's okay to run the short distances at those speeds or whether I should try to slow down to around 8:14 next time I do a workout like this, which will be next Tuesday. But when I do it next Tuesday, the fast sections are supposed to be 25 instead of 20 seconds, and the next Tuesday after that, they are supposed to last for 30 sec.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:31/mile.

Weather at 6 am: 26°F, 63% humidity, wind 5.8 mph SE.

I ran the same route as yesterday and it was much drier and clearer today thanks to the warm temperatures during the day yesterday. I would say the sidewalks were about 95% clear today.

It was a fairly uneventful run. I started out quite slow, but got a little faster over the course of the run. I also was kind of late getting out, so for the later part of the run I could feel the sun rising behind me. It was very bright and I was glad I was facing away from the sun at that point.

I was up kind of late last night getting some laundry done so that I'd have clean running clothes to wear this morning.

Progression run - 9 miles w/ last 15 min. moderate. Average pace: 10:21.

Weather at 5:50 am: 26°F, 92% humidity, wind 2 mph ENE, light fog. The fog wasn't dense enough to bother me. I could see fine, except that I wasn't wearing my glasses.

I ran the same route on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and I could have run that same route today with a slight modification, but I decided to do something different. The routes I most often do, which go either east or south from my house tend to start out uphill and finish downhill. Today I went west from my house and ran basically to my office and back home (though I didn't go quite as far as my office - I could see it from the furthest point I ran to), which is most downhill for the first half of the run and most uphill for the second half. I guess that makes it a good workout.

My split times for the easy portion varied between 10:18 and 11:26 pace. My split times for the moderate portion were 1 mile @ 8:54 and 0.75 mile @ 8:46/mile.

I think next time I do a progression run I'm going to turn off the automatic mile splits on my Garmin. That way I can get just an average pace for the whole easy portion, an average pace for the moderate portion, and an average overall pace.

There was one section of the run that I had to be careful where I stepped to avoid goose poop on the sidewalk. We get a lot of that this time of year. I guess we're in the migratory path for the geese or something. I saw a whole bunch of them yesterday when I was out walking with my coworker. It was near my office that I encountered the goose poop this morning.

Easy run plus 6 x 10 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:42.

Weather at 6:10 am: 35°F, 44% humidity, wind 3 mph ESE.

I tried to focus on swinging my elbows back. Still, I didn't run very fast. Each time after I focused on the elbows moving back, I then had to focus on relaxing my shoulders. It's hard to do both. I found that I naturally had a lot more arm swing on the hill sprints where I was trying to run fast.

My paces for the hill sprints were: 7:00, 7:40, 8:13, 8:42, 8:46, 7:36. I knew that I was getting slower with each successive one, so I made a conscious effort to go faster on the last one.

I had intended to get up early and do the shred before the run, since this was a short run today, but I didn't get up early enough to do it before I had to drive son #2 to seminary. So after the run, I got breakfast for son #3 and daughter, and then did the shred, and then drove son #3 to school early for math olympians. Then I came home and had my own breakfast, got ready for work (actually I'm not quite all the way ready for work yet), and got my daughter out the door for the school bus.

Progression run - 14 miles with last 20 minutes moderate, uphill if possible (it was possible). Average pace: 10:08.

Weather from 8:30 - 11:00 am: 41°F, 35% humidity, wind 7.3 mph SSE.

I turned off the auto lap feature on my Garmin so that I could just record one lap for the easy portion, and one lap for the moderate portion so that I could get average pace for those two portions. Average pace for the first 12 miles was 10:22. Average pace for the last 20:55 (2.32 miles) was 8:59.

I did the nearly the same route that I did two weeks ago, which is an out-and-back that heads north through Arapahoe County. I ran this route in order to have the last 20 minutes be uphill, and it really was almost all uphill. It was pretty difficult. I maintained what I would consider to be a moderate pace, but it was possibly more than a moderate effort because of the hills. Not only was the last 20 minutes uphill, but there was a lot of uphill in the 5 miles before that.

I bought a new pair of shoes this afternoon. I tried on the Brooks Adrenaline and some Asics ( I don't know what they were), but ended up sticking with the Saucony Omni series. I'm wearing the new shoes around the house right now in an effort to break them in.

Fartlek run - 10 miles w/ 8 x 25 sec. @ 3K pace.

Weather 9:20-11:00 am: 48°F, 28% humidity, wind 4 mph S.

We are having freakishly warm weather. I should have worn a short-sleeved shirt.

This was kind of a hard workout after Saturday's long run, even with a rest day in between. I was supposed to do 4 miles today and do this workout tomorrow, but I switched them because I had more time today on account of the holiday.

I took my mp3 player, which I haven't been doing lately, because it was warm enough that I didn't need to wear my warm ear cover thing. I have an arm band that holds my mp3 player. On my second fast segment today, my mp3 player fell out of the arm band. This has happened before and I've been meaning to sew up the bottom of the arm band (it's open at the top and the bottom) but have never gotten around to it. The mp3 player hit the ground harder this time because I was running faster and the little button in the middle of the dial fell out. However, I was able to snap it back in and it seems to be working fine.

Since I was in the middle of a fast segment and didn't finish it because of dropping the mp3 player, I ran a little ways more and then redid that second fast section. When I looked at the data after the run, I realized that I did 22 seconds of that fast section before stopping because of the dropped mp3 player, so if I count that fast section, I actually did 9 fast runs instead of 8. And once again, I ran them faster than I could probably run a 3K. My paces for the fast sections were 7:29 (uphill), 6:27 (this was the short one where I dropped the mp3 player), 6:29, 6:40, 6:57, 6:14, 6:32, 7:13, 6:37.

Easy run. Average pace 10:58.

Weather: 35°F, 48% humidity, wind 8 mph SW, clear skies and (with a nod to Snoqualmie) a waning crescent moon.

I really took to heart the directive to take easy runs easy today. Some days are just really slow. I guess I was worn out from yesterday. I was glad that today was a short run.

After the run I got breakfast for the kids and did a few things for them, and then did the shred. I feel like I need to do the shred 2-3 times/week to keep my upper body strength up.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:51/mile.

Weather from 5:40 to 7:40 am: 44°F, 11% humidity, wind 11 mph SW.

Another slow, easy run. The wind was kind of a factor today. I spent a good portion of the run running either south or west into the wind and it slowed me down a bit. I did get faster over the course of the run, however. My first 5 miles were all over 11 minutes, and the other 6 were all under 11 minutes. With a couple of exceptions, each mile was faster than the one before and I ran the last mile in 10:09.

I've got a little tightness in my right hamstring. I noticed it last night when I walked to a neighbor's house. I could feel it this morning when I started running, but it got better as the run progressed.

I need to get more sleep. It's hard for me to get to bed early because I often have to stay up in order to pick my son up from work at 10:00 pm. That was the situation last night because my husband was at a rehearsal until after 10:00. That will probably be the situation again tonight because the boy works until 10:00 and my husband is going down to Colorado Springs for a convention and may not be back before 10:00. I've really got to teach the kid to drive so that he can drive himself to and from work.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:52.

Weather at 6:30 am: 45°F, 28% humidity, wind 10 mph SW, partly cloudy skies, which made for a fabulous pink and blue sunrise. It looks like our warm spell is ending. It's supposed to be cold tomorrow.

According to my training schedule I was suppose to run 9 miles with the last 15 minutes moderate this morning. I struggled with the decision all day yesterday, but I finally decided to run 4 miles easy instead because my hamstring was bothering me and I've generally been feeling tired and run down lately. I had to convince myself that taking it easy would benefit me more than running the 9 miles would. I am able to slack off on things in other areas of my life, but for some reason I am very strict with myself about running even though no one cares whether I run except for me.

My hamstring was a little tight on my run this morning, but not as bad as yesterday, so I think it's getting better. I ran pretty slowly today, but I did manage negative splits (11:25, 11:05, 10:44, 10:16). I've got 6 miles plus hill sprints scheduled for tomorrow. I'll probably do it, but will attempt to do the hill sprints a little slower than I have been doing them.

Easy run plus 8 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:19.

Weather at 7 am: 32°F, 53% humidity, wind 10 mph E.

I felt much better this morning! My hamstring did not bother me at all. I increased my cadence just slightly over what I had been doing the last few days but still kept it easy and increased my pace as a result. Splits for the first six miles were 10:58, 10:57, 10:38, 10:03, 9:50, 9:35.

I tried to take the hill sprints slower than I have been doing them lately, while still going a little harder than an easy pace. Paces on the hill sprints were 8:28, 7:51, 8:55, 8:14, 8:11, 8:21, 8:04, 8:32. That's probably more the range they ought to be in.

Near the end of my run before I did the hill sprints I passed a woman who was walking a very large dog (the dog was on leash and didn't bother me at all). I just said to her, "That's a big dog." She said, "He would like to run with you." That was the end of the conversation because they I was past her, but it got me thinking. I don't deserve to have an opinion because I have never owned a dog, but I'm wondering whether if you have a dog that needs to run, you're obligated to become a runner so you can run with the dog. I guess you can take the dog to an off-leash area and let the dog run, and I saw a guy the other day who was riding a bike and was holding a leash with a dog running along side him. But it seems like it would just be more convenient to be able to run with the dog. It's neither her nor there, I suppose; just something I was thinking about.

I've got a really busy day tomorrow and I need to get my long run done early in the morning. My oldest son has to be to work at 5:30 in the morning, which is not the shift he usually has on Saturday, but that will get me up and going early, which will be helpful. I'm supposed to do 15 miles with the last 30 minutes moderate and uphill if possible, and boy is it possible.

Progression run - 12 miles easy + 30 minutes moderate, uphill. Average pace: 9:56.

Weather from 5:45 to 8:30 am: 18°F, 91% humidity, wind 3 mph SSE, misty/foggy.

I meant to turn off the auto lap feature on my Garmin before I started, but I forgot. I left it on until after the start of the 12th mile and then turned it off so that I would have a good mechanism for timing my 30 minutes moderate. So I have mile splits for the 12 easy miles (ranging between 9:32 and 10:52), and just the average pace for the moderate part (9:03).

There was a gradual downhill for about 3 miles starting after the 8th mile. I got going a little too fast in that section because it was so easy. By the time I got to the moderate part, I was tired, but I pushed it a little and managed to increase the pace a little, but not a ton on account of the up hill.

I had to drop my son off at work at 5:30 this morning, and then went running after that. I had to go early because my husband is at a music teachers' conference and I had to take son #3 to a youth orchestra rehearsal at 9:15. I was actually done with my run this morning before the time that I have left on my run the last couple of Saturdays.

I was thinking about whether aerobic capacity or leg strength is my limiting factor, and I think it's leg strength. I'll have to look in my Hudson book and see what modifications to the training plan he says to make when leg strength is the limiting factor.

Fartlek run - 10 miles w/ 8 x 30 sec. at 5K-3K pace. Average pace: 10:18.

Weather at 6 am: 7°F, 85% humidity, wind 8.1 mph N, a thin layer of snow on the ground and snowing lightly.

I felt a little overdressed at first, but that was because I was running south, with the wind behind me. Once I turned north and started heading back towards home, I was plenty cold. My kids thought I looked pretty funny when I got home, all bundled up and covered with frost.

For the first part of the run I was the first person to make footsteps in the snow. That changed when I started passing high schools (3 of them) and it was time for school to start. My shoes make kind of a squeaky sound on the snow. You know in the cartoons when people are always slipping on banana peels? I saw a banana peel on the sidewalk this morning, as if the sidewalks weren't already slippery enough with the snow. But I didn't step on it and I didn't slip.

I tried to take my fast parts a little slower than I have been and I did manage to slow them down. I should probably slow them down about 10-20 seconds/mile more. It's hard to see my pace on my Garmin while I'm running them because I only run for 30 seconds and the Garmin has a hard time adjusting the pace quick enough, and I set it to the screen where I'm seeing the lap time so that I can time the 30 seconds. This screen doesn't include current pace. I guess I could modify it so that it would. In any case, the pace on my fast 30 second portions was 8:46 (uphill), 7:53, 8:07, 7:56, 7:52, 8:07, 8:12, 7:56.

I actually felt pretty good today. But I'm not sure I want to go out in the cold again. I'm thinking of working from home even though the roads aren't that bad.

It's supposed to snow all day today, though it isn't snowing very hard, and it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow morning. I'll have to see if I have the intestinal fortitude, as it were, to get out in the cold and snow for another 10 miles (but just easy, without the fartlek) tomorrow.

Easy run. Average pace: 9:48/mile.

I wimped out and ran on the treadmill this morning. When I got up the local news was saying that it was -1 with the wind chill making it -13. I wasn't brave enough to spend nearly two hours running outside in those temperatures, so I packed it in and drove to work and ran on the treadmill there. Running on the treadmill takes me a lot of extra time in the morning because I have to drive to work to do it and then drive back home to get the kids off to school.

To mitigate the boredom of the treadmill, I did a 10 minute warm up, and then switched between 6.0 mph (10:00 pace) and 6.5 mph (9:13 pace) every 5 minutes. It made it easier to only have to think about the next 5 minutes instead of the next 80 minutes or something like that. The treadmill won't let you enter a running time more than 60 minutes, so I ran for 60 minutes, took a bathroom break, and then ran for another 40 minutes. The t.v. was off and no one was there for most of the time, so I just listened to my mp3 player and I don't have any books on it right now because the one's I got from the library a while ago have all expired.

I want to get back outside tomorrow. It's not supposed to be quite as cold. But there is a layer of snow on the ground right now with little chance of it melting today. I don't have time to drive to work tomorrow morning, so I'll have to run outside, I guess.

Easy run followed by 10 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:25.

Weather at 6:30 am: 33°F (above freezing - hooray!), 35% humidity, wind 17 mph avg, gusting to 23 mph, NW. The wind really didn't bother me for the first 2/3 of my run and then it picked up in a big way. My hill sprints ended up being into the wind. Fun times.

I was just glad to be back outside today. I can't believe I used to run on the treadmill every day (when I started running not quite two years ago). The 10 miles on the treadmill kind of did a number on my knee yesterday, but I iced it and used the foam roller on it last night, and it's not too bad this morning. It didn't bother me at all on my run.

I slowed the hill sprints way down from what I've been doing recently. The wind helped me with that. Here are my paces from the hill sprints: 8:19, 8:55, 8:38, 7:59, 8:03, 9:09, 8:23, 8:00, 8:28, 8:50.

The hill that I do the hill sprints on is on a trail that leads into the green belt that runs between my neighborhood and the middle school. When I was running the hill this morning, it was the time when kids are heading to the middle school and I encountered several of them on the hill. It's a good thing I don't embarrass easily. I must have looked like a complete dork. There were two boys walking down the hill while I was doing my last hill sprint and they didn't do as good a job of moving to the other side of the path out of my way as I would have liked them to. At least I didn't run into them.

The wind is really howling and shaking my house right now.

Progression run - 2 miles easy, 6 miles moderate, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 9:26.

Weather at 6 am: 24°F, 38% humidity, wind 7 mph WNW.

I feel really good about this run. I was a little apprehensive about the 6 miles moderate before I started the run, but then I did it! In fact, it was a little irksome to slow down when I got to the 9th mile. That's probably because I was going downhill. By the time I got to the 10th mile, which was more uphill, I was feeling a little better about going slow. In any case, my easy miles after the moderate part were a lot faster than my easy miles at the beginning. Split times were: 10:46, 10:40, 9:31, 9:08, 9:26, (now the downhill starts), 8:48, 8:27, 8:21, 9:36, 9:34.

I've got an easy day tomorrow. The schedule says rest or cross-train. I'll probably run 4 miles easy.

I started my core abs class at work yesterday. It's for a half hour on Wednesdays for 7 weeks. I got the impression that the instructor went easy on us yesterday because it was the first class and that it will get harder. One of the women who was in the class asked me later in the afternoon if I was sore from the class and I had to admit that I wasn't. I hope I didn't make her feel bad. But I've been doing these exercises in the shred, even though I haven't done the shred in a while, and I can do them.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:16.

Weather at 6:30 am: 25°F, 54% humidity, wind 7 mph SSW.

I felt better today than I thought I might after that relatively intense run yesterday. I guess it helps that I got to bed a little bit earlier.

I've got two kids complaining of sore throats and I'm feeling just slightly congested myself. I hope this doesn't turn into anything significant. I'll drink lots of water today and try to get to bed early again tonight.

Long run. Average pace: 10:15.

Weather from 6:45 - 10:45 am: low temp 34°F, high temp 48°F, 23% humidity, wind 10 mph SW. Notice the temperature differential. That's what happens when I begin a long run before sunrise.

First, I'll tell you about the run. I started from the Goodson Rec Center and ran south on the Highline Canal Trail for 2.5 miles then turned around and ran back. I stopped at my car and got my sunglasses because the sun had just come up. While I was at my car, I saw a woman run past me on the trail. I started running again in the same direction as the woman and realized I was running slightly faster than her. I caught up with her and then slowed down to her speed and ran and talked with her for a little while. It was nice. But I didn't stay with her too long because she was going slower than I wanted to go. I ran 6 miles north on the trail from my car and then back again, which made a total of 17. I was stretching after the run and a guy came up and started stretching. He had just finished 20 miles. He said he saw me near the end and tried to catch up with me but couldn't. I had actually picked up the pace just a little on the last 4 miles because I was tired and wanted to finish. My pace on the last four miles was 9:51, 9:41, 9:56, 9:12.

Okay, now I'll tell you that this run was the stupidest thing I could have done today. I had a little tightness all along the back of my left leg yesterday. But it wasn't too bad, and I did get more sleep than usual, so I got up and ran anyway. While I was running it was hurting a bit and I thought about cutting the run short. But I didn't cut the run short, and now it's really hurting - to the point that I'm limping. The pain is concentrated at the back of my left knee and the top of the calf. Note that this is not the knee that was bothering me earlier in the week - it's the other one. Fortunately I have a rest day tomorrow. But I'm thinking I may need a longer rest than that. I hope that nothing serious is wrong and that it won't take too many days for this pain to go away. Why do I have such a hard time running less than I have planned? When will I learn my lesson?

*Update*

I iced my knee, took some ibuprofen, and took a nap and my knee is feeling MUCH BETTER. I can still feel a twinge, but I can walk without a limp now and it actually feels better than it did yesterday. Maybe I'll be okay by Monday.

Also, I meant to mention that this week is the highest mileage week I have ever done and is likely to remain in that position for at least a few weeks. Next week will be lower mileage, even if I don't knock things down because of soreness.