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HRCA Backcountry 10 Miler

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15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Littleton,CO,USA

Member Since:

Aug 04, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Boston Qualifier

Running Accomplishments:

I've run off and on (more off than on) throughout my adult life. Most recently I started running in May of 2007.

5K PR: Colder Bolder in December 2009 in 22:50.

10k PR: Bolder Boulder in May 2009 in 48:06.13.

1/2 Marathon PR: Canyonlands Half-Marathon in March 2010 in 1:43:20.

Marathon PR: Newport (Oregon) Marathon in June 2010 in 3:42:17.

I have completed two full marathons.

Short-Term Running Goals:

Get back to consistent running.

Long-Term Running Goals:

Sub 3:30 marathon.

Personal:

I grew up in Utah, but live in Colorado now.

I am married and am a working mother of four children, ages 9-19.

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Nike Lunarracer Lifetime Miles: 284.91
Brooks Adrenaline Trail Lifetime Miles: 574.62
Brooks Green Silence Lifetime Miles: 681.13
Brooks Adrenaline 10 (2) Lifetime Miles: 424.52
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
163.5156.38219.89
Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 80.44Brooks ST3 Miles: 91.96Nike Lunarracer Miles: 47.49
Night Sleep Time: 196.00Nap Time: 6.00Total Sleep Time: 202.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.044.008.04

Hard Run. 2 miles easy, 4 miles @ maximum effort, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 8:34.

41° to start and 39° by the end, 34% humidity, mostly clear skies, wind 10 mph average, gusting to 21 mph, WNW.

My workout plan calls this a time trial for some reason, but I prefer to call it a hard run. Rather than doing one of my two 8-mile loops, I decided to run my 4-mile loop twice this morning. The wind was howling and I decided that I wanted to stay closer to home and avoid open areas. The weather wasn't nearly as bad as it was for you Utah folks yesterday morning. But it wasn't pleasant either. I expect that it will be worse tomorrow.

I had to run across the grass a couple of times to avoid sprinklers this morning. But there was one sprinkler that I didn't see and it whapped me right across the chest. I expect that the sprinklers will get turned off for the season pretty soon. These sprinklers that I ran into where on a large grassy area along a main street, so they belong to the city (though it's technically not a city), not to an individual.

Splits today were 9:49, 9:23, 7:34, 7:32, 7:48, 7:38, 9:32, 9:10.

**Later Addition**

I don't know if I should mention this, but my oldest son told me about it last night and then I got confirmation about it via an email from the school this morning, but a boy on the cross country team from my sons' high school was running the Highline Canal Trail with some parents and teachers yesterday and collapsed and died on the way to the hospital. I don't know any more details than that.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 8.04
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(13)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.140.006.14

Slow Six. Average pace: 9:54.

Shred Level 2

30°, 50% humidity, no significant wind.

I ran really slowly this morning. I guess I'm still tired from yesterday's hard run. I'm glad it's almost the weekend. I need some rest.

I think I have to accompany my son on a drive up to some town north of Denver this evening so that he can get in some driving hours in pursuit of his drivers license and so that he can see a girl that he likes. I don't really want to go. I'd rather stay home and do nothing, but I guess I should go. We really need to get some driving hours in so that this kid can get his license. It will simplify my life when he gets his license.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 6.14
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.784.2210.00

Fartlek + Progression Run. 2 miles easy, 4 miles (1 min. @ 10K pace alternating with 1 min. easy), 2 miles easy, 2 miles hard. Average pace: 8:30.

32° at start, 45° at end, average humidity 50%, but decreasing during the run, winds calm.

At met Michelle and Michelle on the Highline Canal Trail, as is usual for a Saturday morning. It was quite chilly, so I wore long pants, a long sleeve shirt and a jacket, gloves, and an ear covering.

The Michelles were planning to run 6 miles, so I ran the first 2 miles with them, but then I had to start my fartlek intervals, so I left them behind. I was supposed to turn around at the five mile marker, but I had was in a fast interval at that point and I didn't want to turn around during a fast interval, so I went a ways beyond mile marker 5 and then turned around when it was time to run easy for a minute. As a result, I ended the 10 miles a good stretch ahead of where I usually stop, so I had a cool-down walk at the end.

I ran the first 2 miles at 9:28 pace. My paces on the fast 1 min. intervals were: 7:14, 7:31, 7:24, 7:17, 7:13, 7:21, 7:18, 7:20, 7:32, 6:59, 7:14, 6:54, 6:59, 7:26, 7:07, 7:06, with recovery paces varying between 8:47 and 9:38. The 2 miles easy after the fartlek were at 9:12 pace, and then the 2 miles hard at the end were at 7:39 pace.

As I started the run shivering, I thought of all the people running St. George this morning and wondering whether they were cold.

I did drive up to Frederick/Firestone with my son last night and went and had sandwiches at the shop where this girl works. It was actually a fairly pleasant outing.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.770.006.77

Easy Run + 8 x 10 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 9:14.

Shred level 2

42°F, 96% humidity, wind 3 NNW, light drizzle, fog.

The fog made it seem even darker than usual. I would estimate that visibility was less than 1/4 mile. It was especially weird doing the hill sprints because there are no street lights in the green belt and so it was very very dark on the hill. My head lamp helped, but only so much.

I was okay for most of my run wearing shorts and a long sleeved shirt, but just as I began the 6th mile I turned north, which was colder because of the wind, even though it wasn't a strong wind. I picked up the pace a little bit more at that point in an effort to stay warm. Splits were 9:34, 9:18, 9:14, 8:54, 8:50, 8:25. Paces for the hill sprints were 6:47, 6:45, 6:20, 6:40, 6:39, 6:43, 6:43, 6:26. I think this is the first time that all of my hill sprint paces have been in the 6s. I think it helps that they were 10 sec. instead of 8 sec. because it gave me a little more time to get up to speed.

I think that today was the warmest morning I'll have all week. It looks like morning temperatures are going to be in the 30s for the rest of the week and last I checked, I might have rain tomorrow morning.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.77
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.031.076.10

Hill Repeats - 2 miles easy, 8 x 1 min. uphill @ 5K effort w/jog-back recoveries, 2 miles easy.

31° F, 85% humidity, winds calm.

Remember two weeks ago when I did hill repeats and I couldn't quite reach a sign that was just beyond where I could get in my 50 sec. repeats? Well, today I had 10 seconds more on each repeat and so I was able to reach the sign. I just reached it on my first 2 repeats, and thereafter I went beyond it, particularly on the last repeat. My paces on the repeats were 7:52, 7:56, 7:39, 7:40, 7:47, 7:38, 7:31, 7:00. I went quite slowly on my warm up and cool down, as well as on my jog-back recoveries, so my average pace for the whole run was only 9:50.

It was cold out this morning. Cars that were parked outside had frost on the windows. However, I was pretty warm by the time I finished my hill repeats.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 6.10
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(10)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.080.008.08

Extraordinarily Easy Eight. Average pace: 9:56.

46° F, 26% humidity, wind 12 SSE.

I was surprised by how warm it was this morning. The forecast was for a much colder morning and I had laid out clothes in accordance with the forecast. My mind wasn't nimble enough to change clothing plans at the last minute, so I was slightly over dressed.

I just never got going very fast today for some reason. Maybe yesterday's hill repeats took more out of me than I realized.

I skipped the Shred today in a feeble attempt to rest up for a dinky trail race that I'm running on Saturday. I'll skip the Shred on Friday too.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 8.08
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(15)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.006.0010.00

Threshold Run - 2 miles easy, 6 miles @ half-marathon pace, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 8:44.

35° F at start, dropping to 33° F by the finish, 90% humidity, wind 7 N, light drizzle/mist.

I'm cold. I'd like to jump in a hot shower, but my sons have been showering, so now I've got to wait for some hot water.

It's been a long time since I've run 10 miles on a week day. I can only fit in 8 miles if I'm going to make it home in time to drive to seminary, so today I made the boy walk to seminary. In the cold and the wet and the dark. Poor boy. I assume he made it. He was gone when I got home.

According to the McMillan calculator, and based off of my Ogden marathon time, my half-marathon pace is 8:09. I've yet to actual run a half marathon at that pace. My splits this morning were 9:56, 9:56, 8:29, 8:20, 8:24, 8:02, 7:57, 7:54, 9:06, 9:18. This particular route is mostly uphill for the first half and mostly downhill for the second half, and you can see that in my splits. If you average together the splits for the 6 tempo miles, it comes out to 8:11, so that's pretty close to my half-marathon pace.

It was a cold, wet run, and I felt like I was running blind much of the time because my glasses were very wet and sometimes fogged up, and my headlamp wasn't working very well. I really couldn't see where I was going.

Yesterday on my way to work, I stopped and took some pictures of the hill where I do hill repetitions. It's longer, but not as steep as my hill sprint hill. When I took this first picture, I was standing at about the spot where I start my hill repetitions. I've drawn an arrow to the sign I try to reach, but I don't think you can see the sign very well.

Here's another picture that I took when I was part way up the hill. Again I've pointed out the sign that I try to reach when I run up this hill.

It occurred to me when I was taking the pictures yesterday that if I really want a challenge, I should try running up that grassy hill that's on the right side of the street.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(16)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.310.006.31

Easy run. Average pace: 9:30.

28° at start, 32° at end, 90% humidity, winds calm.

Well I'm not posting quite as early as I usually do on week days. My kids don't have school today, so I slept in and got out to run around 7:30 am. I thought about working for a couple of hours and then running when it was a little warmer (because it's supposed to warm up a little today, unlike yesterday or tomorrow), but I decided just to go out and get it over with. It actually wasn't as bad as the temperature would indicate because it was sunny.

A couple of miles into my run I had to cross a busy street. It has two lanes going in each direction, plus left-turn lanes, so it's 5 lanes wide. The light turned green when I was a few yards away from crossing, so it had been green for a little while when I got to the point of crossing, but I decided to go for it anyway. I probably should have stopped, hit the walk button, and waited for the next cycle. When I was mid way across the street, the light turned yellow so I started sprinting. I made it to the opposite curb just after the light turned red. The problem was that my hat fell off during my sprint. So when I got to the opposite curb, I hit the walk button and thought I'd wait until the next cycle to go out and get my hat, but then there was a city bus about to go through the intersection in the lane that my hat was in, which was the closest lane to my curb, and he stopped and motioned for me to go get my hat. I'm not sure whether he would have run over the hat if he hadn't stopped, but it was nice of him to stop for me. It's my favorite hat and I wouldn't want it to get run over.

I'm feeling just a little under the weather. I have a slightly scratchy throat and an occasional cough.

Here's the weather forecast for tomorrow:

Cloudy and cold with a mix of freezing drizzle and light snow. Morning lows are forecast to be from 21 to 26 degrees, afternoon highs from 32 to 36 degrees.

It may be a fairly unpleasant race tomorrow. I remember that it was quite cold on the day of this race last year, but there wasn't any snow.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.31
Night Sleep Time: 8.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(6)
Race: HRCA Backcountry 10 Miler (10 Miles) 01:24:19, Place overall: 2, Place in age division: 1
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
2.0010.0012.00

19°F, 87% humidity, winds calm.

It is freakishly cold today. Did I mention it is really cold today. Oh and one other thing. It's incredibly cold today.

This was a tough race. Besides that it was very very cold, the trail was very hill, windy (and by that I mean that there were a lot of turns, not that the wind was blowing), rocky in spots (sort-of flat, slick rocks), and was covered with a light dusting of snow. And there was a little creek that I had to jump over twice. It was quite slippery and I very nearly fell down several times. I really did fall down once, in the 7th mile, just as I was approaching an aid station. More on that later.

There were really not a whole lot of people at this race. I guess the smart people saw how cold it was and stayed home. It was funny at the start line. No one seemed to want to line up at the front. There was a handful of people at the front and then a gap and then everyone else. But we did close in the gap right before the race started. Because of the small crowd, people spread out pretty quickly right at the beginning of the race. I passed a couple of people in the first mile and then every one was pretty much set in their position. In about the second or third mile, I could hear a guy behind me but there wasn't room for him to pass me because we were on single track and we had just done a little loop and were passing runners going the other way who hadn't done the loop yet. We got to a place that was a little bit wider, so I moved over and let him pass me. He thanked me. I'll now call him blue jacket guy. I then decided to keep blue jacket guy within sight because it was pretty lonely on the trail and I was a little worried about getting lost. I stayed behind him for a few miles and noticed how he put his arms out on the turns and I figured he was a more experienced trail runner than I am, so I tried to emulate him. After a couple of miles, we caught up with a guy that I will call black jacket guy who then fell into step with us. For a couple of miles, blue jacket guy was in front, then black jacket guy, and then me. I just tried to stay up with them. After some time, black jacket guy went in front, so then it was black jacket guy, then blue jacket guy, and then me. That went on for quite a while. I was sticking with them pretty well, but then it must have been in the 7th mile, I was going up a little hill around a curve approaching an aid station, and I fell. It wasn't a bad fall. My legs slid to the right and I fell on my left side. I was able to get back up easily. There were three women at the aid station and they saw me fall and asked if I was okay. I said I was fine, but I stopped at the aid station for a minute and drank a cup of gatorade and commented to the three women that I guessed I would give up trying to follow those two guys. So then I got going again and before too long, I was able to see those two guys again. We went around a loop and so we passed the aid station where I had fallen again. As I went past the second time, I yelled to the three women that I had almost caught the guys. I kept following the two guys, and in the last mile, I actually passed blue jacket guy, but I wasn't quite able to pass black jacket guy, so I finished between them. I talked to both of them after the race and thanked them for being my pacers.

I think the course was a little short. My garmin only said 9.93, but maybe it was because of the short cuts I took. There were 2 or 3 places where you could go one of two ways over a short distance and one way was a little shorter than the other and there were no markings indicating which way you should go. In any case, my splits were 8:42, 8:58, 8:07, 8:09, 8:47, 8:08, 9:18 (the fall and the stop at the aid station), 8:59, 8:11, 7:23.

I was cold during the race, but not too bad. When I really froze was waiting around afterwards for the awards ceremony, so I could get my little medal. But they don't do anything for 2nd place overall. I hope that we have a freakishly warm day for the half marathon next month.

Did I mention that it was cold today? Oh, and instead of giving you a t-shirt, at this race you get a hooded sweatshirt. That comes in handy. I had brought a dry shirt and another sweatshirt with me to the race. So after the race, before the awards ceremony, I went out to my car and took off my wet shirts and put on the dry shirt, the sweatshirt from the race, and my other sweatshirt. However, I was obliged to keep the wet bra on because I could change that much in my car.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 2.00Total Sleep Time: 9.50
Comments(18)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.900.006.90

Easy run + 10 x 10 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 9:24. Followed by Shred level 2.

27-32°, 80% humidity, winds calm.

I'm sick. I've got a stuffy head, a sore throat, and a dry hacking cough. I slept in until time to drive to seminary this morning. I'm working from home today because they don't want my germs in the office, so after the seminary drop off, I worked intermittently while I got the other kids off to school. Then I waited until about 9:00 and then went out for my run. I debated whether to run or not and then decided that if I had a fever I wouldn't run. I didn't have a fever, so out I went. I'm hoping that the deep breathing and the sweating will help me get rid of the gunk. I'm feeling pretty beat at the moment, but that's because I just finished the Shred.

Getting up and down for the abs part of the Shred I discovered that I've got some bruises on the outside of my lower left leg. I'm sure it's from my fall during the race last Saturday because that's the part that I fell on.

I wasn't sure how being sick would affect my pace today, so I just ran at a comfortable pace (except for the hill sprints). It turns out that being sick didn't make much of a difference. But I may find that I'm useless the rest of the day now. In any case, my splits on the 6 easy miles were 9:54, 9:31, 9:10, 9:03, 8:52, 8:57. I was a little slow on the first hill sprint but then I got going. My Garmin paces for the hill sprints (so take them with a grain of salt) were 7:05, 6:35, 5:56, 6:19, 5:58, 6:02, 5:42, 5:51, 6:19, 5:30.

When I got home from my run and before I did the Shred I went to get a drink of water and I had no water pressure from my sink. I could hear water running, but the dishwasher, the washing machine, and the sprinklers were all off. I went outside and discovered that a pipe that is part of the sprinkler system but that is right by the outside control and is exposed, was broken and water was gushing out. I was able to turn off the water just to to the sprinkler system and not to the whole house and that took care of it. I guess it's time to get the sprinklers blown out for the winter and I'll have to see if the guy that does that for me can fix the broken pipe as well. This is a minor headache that I didn't need, but not really a big deal.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.90
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.633.228.85

Fartlek Intervals - 2 miles easy, 8 x 3 min @ 10K pace w/2-min. active recoveries, 2 miles easy.

9:45 am, 37°F, 84% humidity, winds calm, very gray and overcast.

I slept in again this morning (relatively speaking) and worked early in the morning and then went out for a run later. I'm working from home again because I'm still germy. I debated whether to do my prescribed workout or do an easy six and decided that doing the easy six was probably the wiser thing to do, so that was my plan as I headed out the door. I started on my standard six-mile route, but found that I was feeling pretty good. It must have been the magic shoes (pictured here with a heavy SmartWool sock).

So I took a little detour and headed over to the track. I figured if I got feeling too crummy, then I could cut the intervals short, but I made it through them all. Actually, running faster felt good because it was chilly outside and it made me feel warmer. My paces on the 3 min. intervals were 7:35, 7:36, 7;34, 7:37, 7:33, 7:30, 7:28, and 7:14. I intentionally did the last one a little bit faster. My pace for the 2 min. recoveries between intervals was consistently between 9:30 and 9:40. Splits for the 2 warm-up miles were 9:37 and 9:28, while splits for the cool-down miles were 9:18 and 9:09. Average pace for the whole run was 8:44.

I figure I'll get over this cold eventually whether I run or not, so I might as well run. I really think the running helps me keep my lungs clear.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 8.85
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.50Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

I guess I'll try not running today and see how that works out for me. I think the congestion has moved into my chest. My head is relatively clear. I can breathe through my nose if I really try. But I've still got a cough and I've pretty well lost my voice. I kept whispering at my kids this morning and they would whisper back. But I wasn't trying to be quiet. I just couldn't talk.

It's very foggy today and I think it would be fun to run in the fog, but I guess I better not. That makes me sad.

Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

Taking another sick day today, from running that is. I still have to work.

Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.710.006.71

Easy one-hour run. Average pace: 8:56. Shred level 2.

54°F, 57% humidity, wind 2 S.

I've still got a cough and some congestion but I decided to run today anyway. It felt good to get out and breath some fresh air and sweat. I hope I sweated all the yuckies out of me.

Those shoes really are magic. Or maybe it was the two days off and a week of sleeping in. But I got going faster than I expected today without really trying. Splits were 9:32, 9;23, 8:53, 8:44, 8:43, 8:35, with the last .71 @ 8:34. What really surprised me was that third mile was faster than the second because the third mile is mostly uphill and I often run it slower than the 2nd mile when I do this route.

It was also nice to be able to run later in the day and to be able to wear shorts and a short-sleeved shirt for a change.

I'll continue playing hooky from the sub-6 club next week because my kids have fall break and I'm taking the week off from work. I was thinking about going to Utah next week, but I don't think I will. I think we'll stay home, save the money, and try to get some things done. So next week I'll sleep in and then get up and run whenever I wake up.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 6.71
Night Sleep Time: 8.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(5)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.784.3912.17

Fartlek Run + Progression: 4 miles easy, 4 miles alternating between 90 sec. @ 10K pace and 90 sec. easy, 2 miles easy, 2 miles moderate/hard.

33° at start, 48° at end, humidity starting at 60%, ending at 45%, no wind.

Another Saturday morning on the Highline Canal Trail. I met up with Michelle and Michelle. They were doing 6 today, so we ran three miles together then they turned around and I continued on until the 6 mile marker, then I turned around.

The first 4 miles went by pretty quickly, because I had the Michelles to talk to for the first 3. Then the next 4 went by quickly because it was the fartlek portion and I had to concentrate on changing pace every 90 seconds. Then when I started the first of the last 4 miles I felt like time had come to a stand-still. It was taking forever for a mile to go by. This was not supposed to be a progression workout. I was supposed to do all of the last 4 miles easy, but I was not very comfortable at the slower pace and since I took a couple of days off this week, I decided to turn it into a progression run and do the last 2 miles a little faster.

So here are the stats. Splits for the first four miles were 9;25, 9:13, 9:09, 9:10. Paces on the fast portions of the fartlek intervals were 7:31, 7:44, 7;26, 7:51, 7:32, 7:21, 7;25, 7:31, 7;34, 7:28, 7;24, 7:00. Pace on the easy portions of the fartlek intervals varied between 9:08 and 9:38. I went a little further than 4 miles on the fartlek portion because I had just started the fast portion of the 12th repetition when I completed the 4th mile and I didn't want to cut the interval short. Splits thereafter were 9:27, 9:31, 8:09, 7:46.

I brought my fuel belt and intended to wear it, but then I accidentally left it my my car. I was okay, though, because it was cool and shady and I'm used to not taking much fuel, if any, on my runs.

Two weeks ago I went back to the trail later in the day and took a couple of pictures. So here's a picture from two weeks ago to give you an idea what the Highline Canal Trail looks like. It's much sunnier in this picture than it usually is when I run this trail. Also, it's not quite as green now. Leaves are starting to fall.



Brooks ST3 Miles: 12.17
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 1.50Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.680.006.68

Easy run + 8 x 10 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 9:38. Shred level 1.

8:30 am, 60° F, 33% humidity, wind 6 SSW.

I had to pay this morning for running last Saturday's workout too fast. I started out really slowly, but I did get going a little better after a couple of miles. Splits for the 6 mile easy run were 10:08, 9:41, 9:33, 9:15, 9:19, 8:56. I did okay on the hill sprints. Paces were 6:36, 6:28, 6:59, 6:58, 6:23, 6:53, 6:52, 5:33.

I thought about doing one of the hour-long Jillian Michaels videos that I have instead of the 20-minte shred since I'm not in a hurry today. But I'm still somewhat under the weather, so I decided not to push myself too hard.

They're doing a little bit of construction along the route I usually run. In one section, they're replacing a fence, and so they've got men and machinery on the sidewalk and the shoulder of the road and have one lane closed. In another section, they're replacing the gutter, so it's the same kind of blockage. If I were running early in the morning like I would if I were working, it would not be much of an issue because the machinery would be put away and the workmen wouldn't be there. But running later in the morning like I'm doing, I have to run around the machinery and past all the workmen. Oh well.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.68
Night Sleep Time: 8.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(4)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.455.0010.45

Specific-Endurance Intervals - 2 miles easy, 5 x 1 mile @ 10K pace w/3-min. active recoveries, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 8:35.

9:00 am, 49° F, 69% humidity, wind 5 NNW. 49 degrees is not that cold, but I felt chilly on this run whenever I was running at an easy pace. I think it was because of that North wind.

I debated whether to run this workout today or run easy today and save this workout for tomorrow because tomorrow I'm going up to Westminster to run with the FFF (Fabulously Fast and Fit) Nan. But the weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, so I decided to get the hard workout done today while the weather was tolerable. Also, I put on the magic shoes, so I had no choice but to run fast. So I guess I'll have to make Nan run slowly tomorrow.

My pace for the 2 mile warm-up was 9:32. My target 10K pace was 7:45. My splits for the 5 x 1 miles were 7:58, 7:49, 7:41, 7:38, 7:37. My pace for the 2 mile cool-down was 9:04.

During the 3-min. recovery after my first fast mile, I passed a guy standing at an intersection holding a sign encouraging people to vote for 4 school board candidates. As I went past, I told him that I voted for all four of them (it's a mail-in ballot only) and he said, "You rock." That's kind of a nice thing to hear as you're running along.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 10.45
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(10)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.557.0011.55

Tempo Run. Average pace: 8:34.

33°F, 97% humidity, winds calm, light rain/snow.

I drove up to Westminster early this morning to run with Nan. I've heard that if you want to become a faster runner, you should run with someone who's faster than you. So that's what I did today. Nan is A LOT faster than me. According to my training plan, and because I did a hard workout yesterday, I was supposed to do an easy run today. However, I knew that if I tried to do an easy run with Nan, I would run it too fast and it wouldn't really be easy. So I decided just to do tomorrow's tempo run instead, and then I'll run easy tomorrow and on Friday.

We did a warm up for the first two miles, though they were a little faster than I usually run my warm up. Splits were 8:56 and 8:42. Then we did 7 miles near my half-marathon pace. Splits were 8:16, 8:17, 8:07, 8:13, 8:20, 8:19, and 8:05. I was pretty beat by that point, so we slowed down for the rest of the run. Splits were 8:58, and 9:27, and then the last half mile at 9:47 pace. We were pretty wet and muddy by the time we finished. Nan had had a nice recovery run and I had had a hard workout.

It was really fun to run with Nan and to get to know her a little bit and to meet her cute family. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Nan for letting me come.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 11.55
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 1.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(10)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.090.006.09

Easy run. Average pace: 9:11.

9:20 am, 34°F, 85% humidity, winds calm.

Last night it occurred to me that there was no reason to be constrained to running the roads around my neighborhood today and the idea of running on the softer and flatter trail was appealing to me, so I called up my friend Michelle and invited her to run 6 miles on the Highline Canal Trail this morning. So that's what we did. My kids tended her kids while we ran. She also ran 4 miles on the indoor track with her friend this morning, so she did doubles today for a total of 10 miles. She's really been doing a great job with her running and is getting in really good shape. It was nice to run with her today.

We ran a little faster than we intended to. We realized today that she runs faster when she runs with me than she does at other times because she thinks that I'm fast and doesn't want to slow me down. The thing is, I often run faster with her than I do at other times. We kept saying that we should slow down a bit, but we never really did. Splits were 9;12, 9:06, 9:06, 9:10, 9;20, 9:13.

Update: Shred Level 2.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 6.09
Night Sleep Time: 8.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.430.006.43

Easy run. Average pace: 9:33.

7:30 am, 38°F, 75% humidity, wind 2 S.

I've had a busy morning. I got up and did my run, then I went over to Michelle's house and did a 45 min. P90X workout with her and the other Michelle. Then I came back home, ate a quick breakfast and took a shower, then I had to take my car in for maintenance. Michelle picked me up from the car place, and then we went out to lunch.

The run this morning was pleasant. The fence builders weren't out yet, but I saw them getting set up when I drove to Michelle's house after my run. Splits were 9:59, 9:37, 9:36, 9:31, 9:28, 9:16, with the last bit at 9:09. I think it's interesting that I got so gradually faster throughout the run. That wasn't my intention; just the way it worked out.

I bummed that this is the last day of my vacation. Usually I'm happy when it's Friday and it's time for the weekend, but I wish this week would have gone on longer. It's back to the grindstone on Monday.


Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.43
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
20.000.0020.00

Long run. Average pace: 9:32.

43-60° F, humidity 55% going down to 32%, winds calm.

I don't know what came over me today. I fully intended to run 16 miles. That's what was on my plan. It was going to work out very symetrically, because Carly joined Michelle and Michelle and me for our standard Saturday morning on the Highline Canal Trail. Carly ran 4 miles, and Michelle and Michelle doubled that for 8, and I was going to double that for 16. But after Michelle and Michelle dropped off and I was on my own, I was feeling good, the weather was perfect, the trail was in good shape and was nice and soft, I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, and I thought that maybe I could run 18 instead of 16 because that wouldn't be much harder. And then I thought that if I was doing 18, I might as well do 20. I was only at about 9 miles when I made that decision, but I stuck with it. I hadn't done a real long run in a while, and it just seemed like a nice thing to do. I would have had the highest weekly mileage that I've had in a while even with the 16.

As I said already, the trail was very nice today. Several stretches were covered in leaves. I would estimate that a little less than half of the trail was covered in leaves. It was overcast and shady for the first several miles, but was sunny by the end of my run.

Splits were 9:36, 9:28, 9:37, 9:48, 9:45, 9:46, 9:47, 9:38, 9:52 (this was my first mile by myself and I stopped for a bit to mess with my MP3 player, which I had not used while running with others, and I forgot to pause my watch while I was stopped), 9:21, 9;44, 9:30, 9:36, 9;26, 9;18, 9:33, 9:44 (at this point I realized that I was getting slower and I realized that with a little extra effort I could keep the pace up), 9:13, 9:02, 8:54.

I had invited the Michelles to run the full 16 with me and if they had, I would have stopped at 16. I talked to Michelle #1 afterwards and she said that she wished she had done 16 with me. Maybe she'll do 14 with me next Saturday.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 20.00
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.790.006.79

Very slow easy run + 10 x 10 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:18. Shred level 2.

5:00 am, 26°F, 81% humidity, wind 7 W.

I don't know whether it was the cold or residual tiredness from Saturday's run, but I was really slow today. Splits were 10:39, 10:24, 10:22, 9:35, 9:43, 10:06. I was faster in the 4th mile because I was in a hurry to get to the rec center for a pit stop. It looks like I slowed back down after the pit stop, but wasn't quite as slow as I had been before. My paces were tolerable on the hill sprints, if not the fastest I've ever done: 7:12, 7:05, 6:42, 7:04, 6:49, 7:17, 6:53, 6:45, 7:05, 7:06.

It's back to the cold and dark for me now for the foreseeable future. And we seem to have skipped over Fall and straight into Winter around here.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.79
Night Sleep Time: 5.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 5.50
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
3.613.787.39

Specific-Endurance Intervals - 2 miles easy, 3K @ half-marathon pace, 2K @ 10K pace, 1K @ 5K pace w/3-min. active recoveries, 1 mile easy. Average pace: 8:53.

47° F 40% humidity, wind 6 S.

It's a freakishly warm morning in between cold days. A storm is supposed to come in tonight.

I ran on the middle school track this morning, which I haven't done in a couple of weeks. The dirt trail leading up to the track was a little muddy and was somewhat difficult to navigate in the dark. My nice shoes are muddy now.

I love running 8:00 pace on the track because it's so easy to hit the pace because each half lap takes 1 minute. That was my pace for the 3K this morning, and I hit it exactly. I ran the 2K at 7:33 pace, and the 1K at 7:12 pace. Those were both a little faster than I intended.

I saw the same person with the dog that I've seen on the track before. I think it's a woman, but I'm not sure. She let the dog run off leash this time, but it stayed out of my way. I was pretty close to the end of my workout by the time they showed up anyway.

I don't know what possessed me to try to sew a Halloween costume for my daughter this year. I spent a bunch of money on the fabric and pattern, but it is just not going well and I don't have time to finish it. I was supposed to get it done last week while I was on vacation, but I procrastinated because I was afraid of it. I was afraid of it (and rightly so) because the fabric I bought is all slippery and hard to work with. I made the bodice on Sunday, and then I worked on the skirts for a few hours last night (it's a fairy costume), but I was really crabby and I finally got frustrated and gave up. I suppose it's worth the cost of a store-bought costume on top of what I've already spent to avoid further aggravation with this thing.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 7.39
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 1.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.150.008.15

Painfully slow run. Average pace 9:54. Shred level 2.

5:00 am, 28°F, 94% humidity, wind 5 WNW, steadily falling light snow, 1-2" of snow on the ground.

My husband and I both got up at 4:30 this morning and I asked him to check the school district website to see if there was a delayed start or a snow day. He never said anything about it, so I assumed that he checked and that there was no closure. I looked out the window and the snow didn't look to deep and I considered taking the Yaktrax off my shoes (I had put them on last night). So I got dressed and headed out the door.

It was unpleasant when I was going either North or West because the wind made it feel like the snow hitting my face was little pins pricking me in the face. The Yaktrax probably turned out to be a good thing because the snow was deeper than I thought (and got deeper over the course of the run), but they were kind of annoying because they kept developing big clumps of snow under my heels. I would get a new clump about every 10 steps or so. Most of the time I could knock them off by stamping my foot down, but I few times I had to stop and pull the snow off with my hand. I guess that contributed to my slow pace a little bit.

When I was almost finished with my run I got a text message from my son asking me if it was a snow day. I called him back and told him that I didn't know and that he should check the district website. When I got home, he reported that it was indeed a snow day. I haven't been able to get ahold of my husband to find out if he checked the website earlier this morning, so I don't know whether they called the snow day while I was out running, or if my husband didn't check. In any case, if I had known it was a snow day, I might have gone back to bed and run a little later. Oh well. At least it's done now.

I'm a little worried about tomorrow's tempo run. The snow will be even deeper tomorrow. I wonder if it would be a bad idea for me to go do it on the treadmill, since I haven't run on a treadmill for nearly a year. The other problem is that I have to drive to get to the treadmill, which is no fun in the snow and takes extra time. The time won't be a problem if the schools have another snow day tomorrow, which I think is likely.

In other news, I've got a stiff neck. It was hurting yesterday, and then was really stiff when I got up this morning. The running loosened it up a bit, but it still hurts. I think it was caused by the sewing I did on Monday night, leaning over the table and the sewing machine while I was stressed out and tense.

This is the view out my back window just after noon today. Check out the height of the pile of snow on the chair.


Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 8.15
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(14)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.004.008.00

I haven't run yet. I plan to hit the treadmill at some point today. My husband and my kids both have a snow day from school, so I was going to drive in to my office, run on the treadmill, then stay there and work. But after looking outside this morning, I think I'll work from home in the morning and maybe try to venture out a little later to go run on the treadmill. Here's a picture from 6 am this morning of the same view that I took yesterday at noon:

 

**Update**

It's too snowy for me to go to my office to work, but not to snowy for me to go to my office to run on the treadmill. I would have been fine if I had just gone to my office like I planned, but I agreed to go pick up my daughter's friend on the way and bring her back to my house. The street I live on has been plowed and I got out of my neighborhood fine, but the street the friend lives on had not been plowed and I got stuck. The friend's dad and two big brothers had to come dig me out. Going to my office was fine because the main roads have all been blowed. They are snow covered, but passable. Some are better than others. The parking lot at my office was fine because my company pays lots of money to get it plowed. We've got people working in the office all the time (and I do mean all the time) and the office is crucial to the processing of Visa card transactions.

So I finally made it and ran on the treadmill. My workout was supposed to be 2 miles easy, then 2 x 4 miles @ 1/2 marathon pace w/5 min. active recovery, and then 1 mile easy, but I was worried that I was asking for trouble if I did more than 10 miles on a treadmill when I'm not used to treadmill running. So instead I did 2 miles easy (9:32 pace), then 4 miles at 8:00 pace, then 2 miles at 9:32 pace again. I'm thinking that maybe I should run on the treadmill once/week all winter so that I'm in shape for it when I need it.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 8.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50
Comments(15)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.290.006.29

One hour on the treadmill at 9:31 pace.

My neck was stiffer this morning that it has been all week. I was trying to think what made it worse and at first I thought maybe it was the snow shoveling I did yesterday. But shoveled as much or more snow on Wednesday and that didn't bother me. Then I came to work and ran on the treadmill and I think I figured out. There's a tv suspended from the ceiling in front of the treadmills, but it's not very far in front of the treadmills and I realized that if I watch the tv while running on the treadmill, I have to tip my head back to see the tv. I bet yesterday's treadmill run is what made my neck worse. I've run on those treadmills before and it's never bothered me, but my neck was already sore this week and I think that just aggravated it. I was watching an episode of Medium when I realized this, but I kept watching the show through the rest of my run.  But I did try to just listen and not look at the tv all the time and made a special effort to hold my head up straight and look straight ahead during commercials.

For reasons I can't quite fathom, my kids have another snow day today. Last night the school district website said that they would have either a late start or a closure and that they would post their decision by 5 am. I was on the roads at midnight last night and I didn't think they were that bad. I really thought they would go for the late start. My husband's school district did not have a closure today and most of the larger districts around the area are not closed today. The only thing I can figure is that our school district is quite large geographically, and the headquarters are in Castle Rock, which is at a higher elevation than where I live, and maybe things were worse there. Theoretically they have the ability to close schools in one area of the district and not in another, but I've never seen them do it.

So you might be asking yourself, what was I doing out on the roads at midnight last night? I went downtown with my friend Michelle, whom I run with most Saturdays. We went to Wicked and we got home about midnight. I really enjoyed the show. I guess the good thing about today's school closure is that I was able to sleep in after my late night.

It's going to take a long time to get rid of all this snow, and I didn't feel like the roads were in a condition for me to run outside today. I'm wondering if they plow the Highline Canal Trail at all and whether I'm going to be able to run outside tomorrow. I might swing by the trail today and check it out.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.29
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.303.7014.00

Progression Run - 14 miles w/ last 30 min. moderate. Average pace: 9:49.

I checked on the Highline Canal Trail yesterday afternoon and it was snow covered, so we decided to run around the neighborhoods today instead of running on the trail. Michelle and Michelle came to my house and we headed out from there just before 7:30 in the morning, which is shortly after the sun rose. We decided to stick to neighborhood streets because most of them were relatively clear and don't have a lot of traffic. Sidewalks were unreliable because they were shoveled in some places and not in others. Despite running mostly in the middle of the road where it was clear, we did hit lots of slick stretches where we had to stop and walk. As a result, our splits were pretty slow. I came really really close to falling a couple of times, but did not fall. Michelle and Michelle ran a little over 8 miles with me at which point we were back at my house because that's where their car was. After they left, I went out for some more on my own. I stuck with our neighborhood roads approach, but had a little less trouble than we had had when we were together because by then the sun was up more and things were melting. There was a stretch of pathway in the greenbelt that we had avoided when we were together because it was icy, but I was able to run through that stretch near the end of my alone run because by then the ice had melted and it was just wet. There was one part when I was on my own where I got to a park and I thought the path in the park would have been plowed and it wasn't, and so I had to trudge through the snow there.

Thanks to the improvement in the roads during the course of my run, I was able to hit closer to the pace I wanted to on the progression part. Splits for the easy part were 10:09, 10:12, 10:45, 10:52, 10:14, 10:39, 10:15, 10:54, 10:34, 9:52, and 0.3 miles at 9:50 pace. Then I turned of auto lap so that I could time the 30-min. progression with the lap timer, so I just have an average pace for the next 30 minutes. I ran 3.7 miles during the 30 minutes for an average pace of 8:06.

It's quite warm now and should be warm again tomorrow. A lot, though not all, of this snow should be melted by the next time I run, which will be on Monday morning.

Happy Halloween everyone.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 14.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
163.5156.38219.89
Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 80.44Brooks ST3 Miles: 91.96Nike Lunarracer Miles: 47.49
Night Sleep Time: 196.00Nap Time: 6.00Total Sleep Time: 202.00
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