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HRCA Wildcat Mountain Trail Half Marathon

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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
179.7433.66213.40
Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 78.49Nike Lunarracer Miles: 57.82Brooks ST3 Miles: 49.20Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 27.89
Night Sleep Time: 181.50Nap Time: 2.50Total Sleep Time: 184.00
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.830.006.83

Easy run + 10 x 10 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:04.

5:00 am, 39° F, 55% humidity, winds calm.

I got some trail shoes because I have a challenging trail race coming up and I'm hoping that they help me stay on my feet during the race. But they have a big clunky heel and I'm blaming them for my running slowly today. But maybe I should blame all the junk I ate over the weekend. In any case, maybe I'll just use these shoes on days that I'm supposed to do an easy run to help me keep it easy.

My splits this morning for the 6 miles before the hill sprints were 10:05, 9:51, 9:52, 9:56, 9:52, 9:37. It occurred to me this morning that one thing the Monday-morning hill sprints do for me is wake up my legs after the Sunday off and the slow Monday morning run. My paces on the hill sprints were 7:10, 6:37, 6:33, 6:47, 6:29, 6:16, 6:22, 6:40, 6:41, and 6:28. It was nice that it was starting to get light by the time I was doing the hill sprints. I should enjoy it while I can because before long it will be dark at that time again.

The best thing about Daylight Savings Time (who came up with that name anyway?) is going off of it. Although I have to admit that if we didn't have DST, here in Denver we'd have full sun at 4 am in the Summer.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 6.83
Night Sleep Time: 8.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.50
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.246.2511.49

Specific-Endurance Intervals - 2 miles easy, 5 x 2K @ half-marathon-10K pace w/3 min. active recoveries, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 8:36. Level 2 Shred.

5 am, 41°F, 40% humidity, winds calm.

My neck is still a little stiff, but the discomfort seems to have moved from my neck into my left shoulder. The shoulder doesn't feel too bad, except when I run. The bouncing seems to bother it. The first time it bothered me was yesterday morning when I ran. I remember it hurting at the first of my run, but then I didn't remember it bothering me for the rest of the run, so I decided to run with it this morning. Once again, it hurt at the beginning of the run but not so much later on. I could still feel it later in the run, but it didn't hurt as much. I wonder what's going on with it. It's very strange.

I didn't get back from my run until after Thing 2 had gone to seminary. Apparently he got his ride okay. I'm glad that we've started this car pooling arrangement because it lets me get some relatively long runs in on some mornings.

I was going to do this workout on the track, but my son reported yesterday that there was still snow on the track, so I programmed this workout into my watch and did the workout on the roads instead. Since my watch uses English measurements rather than metric, I set the intervals to 1.25 miles instead of 2 K. In any case, my paces on the intervals were 7:58, 8:01, 7:36, 7:35, 7:26. The first two (especially the second one) were mostly uphill, while the last three were more downhill than uphill.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 11.49
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.000.0010.00

Very slow run. Average pace: 10:05.

5 am, 33° F, 67% humidity, wind 3 SSE.

I can't blame it on the shoes today. I guess I was just cold and tired. It was noticeably colder than yesterday morning. Yesterday I took of my gloves for most of the run. Today I was wishing I had a second pair of gloves. And it took me 2 minutes more to run 10 miles today than it took me to run 11.5 miles yesterday. Splits were 10:30, 10:23, 10:25, 10:05, 10:11, 9:59, 9:53, 10:00 9:46, 9:38.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 10.00
Night Sleep Time: 6.25Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.25
Comments(13)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.533.718.24

Threshold Run - 2 miles easy, 2 x 15 min. @ half-marathon pace/10K pace w/1-min. active recovery, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 8:45. Level 2 Shred.

5:30 am, 53° F, 26% humidity, wind 8 S.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was wishing for a 2nd pair of gloves. Today I ran in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and I was fine. However, I still struggled with the pace a bit on account of the wind, especially on the first 15 min. rep. It was mostly uphill and into the wind. The second 15 min. rep. started out uphill and into the wind (because there was precious little rest between them), but then I turned the corner and had a cross wind instead of heading straight into the wind and also things started to tend downhill then. My pace on the first rep was 8:18. My pace on the 2nd rep was 7:54.

A few times recently I've seen an old white-haired guy out running when I've been driving home from the seminary drop-off. He has kind of strange form. He holds his left arm bent close to his body and doesn't swing it, while the right arm swings. I was running a little later today since I didn't have to do the seminary drop-off and so I actually encountered him in the last mile of my run. I passed him and thought that if I kept the same pace I would put some distance between us since I was going faster than him when I passed him. I don't know if he picked up his pace to chase me or what, but I kept hearing his footsteps right behind me. I glanced back a couple of times and he wasn't far behind. I was running about 8:20 pace at that point (it was a gentle down-hill). He followed me for a good half mile or so until I turned off onto my hill sprint hill to head home. I kept up the pace because I didn't want to let the old guy pass me.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 8.24
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(10)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
7.500.007.50

Easy run. Average pace: 9:12.

7 am, 54° F, 33% humidity, wind 6 S, overcast.

My kids are off school again today because the teachers have a professional development day. So I took this opportunity to sleep in and run a little later. I felt pretty good on my run and got going at a fairly decent pace. It turns out that Midnight Trail to Georgia has a good beat and eight notes make a good running tempo. That song was responsible for my fast 6th mile. Splits for the first 6.5 miles were 9:56, 9:09, 9:31, 9:13, 9:06, 8:27, and a half mile at 9:10 pace.

I ran for an hour, which gave me 6.5 miles, but when I got home I asked my 12 year old son if he wanted to run a mile. He's been wanting to start running, but it's been hard to find a time that we can run together because he doesn't want to do it in the mornings and evenings are too busy. So I went out for another mile with him. I tried to let him set the pace and he started out kind of fast. I told him I thought it was a little too fast, but he thought he could do it. He did slow down over the course of the mile, but still we ran the mile in 9 minutes. As we we approaching the end of the mile, I told him that we wouldn't make it quite home before the mile ended, and that we could either stop and walk after we completed the mile or keep running until we got home and he wanted to stop and walk.

I got an email yesterday about the Colder Boulder 5K on December 5. They put you in waves based on your finish time in the previous Bolder Boulder and they they consider each wave a separate race and award three finishers in each wave. I'm irritated by all these hilly 5Ks out here in Highlands Ranch and I haven't been able to run one of them at as fast a pace as I ran the Bolder Boulder this year, so I'm thinking that maybe I could get a good time in the Colder Boulder. Also, each finisher gets a Chic-Fil-A chicken biscuit and a Headsweats Alpine Reversibe Beanie. I'm really tempted to do this race, even though it's 9 days after the Turkey Day 5K I'm signed up for and it's a hassle to get to Boulder. Maybe I'll run the Turkey Trot with my son and then race the Colder Boulder. I'll have to think about it.

Also, for those of you who are considering the Canyonlands Half Marathon in March, they have now announced that registration for the lottery will run from November 25 to December 10, so put that on your calendars.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 7.50
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
9.502.5012.00

Progression Run - 12 miles w/ last 20 min. moderate.

7:30 am, 44-50° F, 40% humidity, wind 2 SSW, sunny.

It felt kind of chilly at the beginning of this run but then it warmed up a little bit and was perfect running weather. Both Michelles as well as Carly and Nicole ran today. Carly and Nicole did 5 miles, but the two Michelles did the full 12. I split off from them after 9.5 miles and picked up my pace. I was surprised by how soon after I finished they both finished. They both picked up the pace as well. Michelle #1 finished just a minute or two behind me and was running strong at the end, and Michelle #2 was just about a minute later and was also running hard at the end. My splits were 10:06, 9:49, 9:45, 9:39, 9:26, 9:55, 9:48, 9:59, 9:59, then 9:57 pace for a half mile, and then 8:01 pace for the last 2.5 miles (20 minutes and 5 seconds).

My husband and I have to drive up to Greeley this afternoon to see our oldest son in a concert with the Western States Honor Orchestra.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 12.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50
Comments(6)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.230.006.23

Easy run. Average pace: 9:37.

6:12 am, 43° F, 41% humidity, WINDY 13-19 mph SSE.

My husband has the day off for Veteran's Day, but the kids and I don't. So he did the driving to seminary this morning, which enabled me to sleep in a bit and run later.

I've got a taper week on account of my race this Saturday, so no hill sprints this morning and no shred all week. I've got a short(ish) tempo run tomorrow and strides on Thursday. Other than that, it's all short and easy. The only day I have to drive to seminary is tomorrow, so I'll have to get up early tomorrow, but I should be able to get a little more sleep than usual the rest of the week.

Splits this morning were 10:30, 10:06, 9:43, 9:21, 9:15, 8:58, with 8:55 for the last bit. I like how each mile was faster than the one before, even though I started quit slowly.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 6.23
Night Sleep Time: 7.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.50
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.084.008.08

Threshold Run - 2 miles easy, 4 miles @ half-marathon pace, 2 miles easy.

5:04 am, 34° F, 76% humidity, wind 5 SSE, clear sky with a waning crescent moon.

I wouldn't normally wear the trail shoes for a run like this, but I wanted to see whether I could run fast in those shoes because I've been feeling like they've been slowing me down and I'm trying to decide whether to wear them for my race on Saturday. I think I've been running slowly in them up until now because I was wearing them on easy days. I think they did okay today and I'll probably wear them on Saturday.

AP: 8:36. Splits: 9:28, 9:09, 8:05, 8:01, 8:10 (big long hill), 7:40 (hooray - I'm past the hill), 9:15, 9:03.

I saw Team Michelle out running when I was leaving the school after the seminary drop-off.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 8.08
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.150.006.15

Easy run.

5:37 am, 48° F, 35% humidity, wind 4 SSE.

I slept a little later this morning than usual, but I didn't get to bed early enough. I didn't have to drive to seminary today. I think I saw my son's carpool leaving the neighborhood near the end of my run, but I'm not sure because I'm not sure what the other driver's car looks like.

This was just an average, uneventful run. AP: 9:45. Splits: 10:20, 10:02, 9:49, 9:25, 9:23, 9:34.

We're being teased with warm weather today and tomorrow and then the next storm is supposed to hit.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.15
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.210.005.21

Easy run + 4 x 100 meter strides.

6:04 am, 52° F, 34% humidity, wind 5 SSE.

I did my old 4 mile route in reverse and with a little variation so that I would end up at the track, which also added some extra distance. I ran the strides on the track, but not being terrifically familiar with tracks and all the markings on them, I wasn't sure exactly which markings indicated 100 meters, so I actually just did the strides for 30 seconds each instead of by distance and now looking at the stats, I realize they were all about 135 meters.

There was a woman with a dog on the track, possibly the same woman and dog I've seen on the track before, but I'm not sure. It's always been dark when I've been on the track before, but it was light this morning. She was kind of wandering around and picking up trash and letting the dog run free. The dog did not bother me at all. She was friendly and we spoke briefly.

I have not been taking sufficient advantage of the opportunity I have to sleep in a little bit this week. That is, I've been offsetting it by staying up too late. Last night it was my own darn fault. I stayed up reading a book. But I finished the book, so now that monkey is off my back. But I may or may not be going up to Commerce City tonight to see a play at the high school where my husband teaches. If I do, then tonight will probably be another late night.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 5.21
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
4.020.004.02

Easy run. AP: 9:45. Splits: 10:21, 9:44, 9:29, 9:25.

6:05 am, 39° F, 65% humidity, winds calm.

The weather was great for running this morning. I prefer it just a bit warmer, but this was fine. I wish I had weather like this all winter. But mostly I wish I could have weather like this tomorrow. However, this is what the forecast says now:  "Denver could be waking up to 2 to 5 inches of snow by Saturday morning, with 5-10 inches possible in the foothills." I think the location of tomorrow's race qualifies as the foothills. If there's that much snow, we won't be able to see the trail. If there's that much snow, I hope they cancel or postpone the race.

In other news, my left knee has been bothering me just a little intermittently. Sometimes I'll be walking along and it will suddenly hyperextend or something and hurt for a few minutes. I've also noticed it hurting just a bit when I've run the last couple of days. This morning I remarked to myself at the end of my run, that it hadn't hurt at all during the run. But then as soon as I stopped, it started hurting. I don't think it's ITB. It's not on the side of my knee. It's more the front, lower part of the knee cap.

Between the snow and my tricky knee, maybe I should skip the race tomorrow even if they don't cancel it. I guess I'll wait and see whether the snow develops and how my knee feels the rest of today.

I did go to the play up at my husband's high school last night. They did "The Diary of Anne Frank." It was opening night. They had some technical difficulties. They had some difficulties in general. My oldest son wants me to go see "Pride and Prejudice" at his high school tonight. It also opened last night. I don't really want to go out again tonight, but it might be interesting to compare the two high schools. I have a feeling that I know which one would win.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 4.02
Night Sleep Time: 6.75Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.75
Comments(16)
Race: HRCA Wildcat Mountain Trail Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) 01:57:50, Place overall: 12, Place in age division: 2
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
2.0013.1015.10

Well, it's over and I'm glad. That was one TOUGH race.

Okay, first for the weather. When I left my house this morning there was just a little snow on the lawns in my neighborhood, but none on the roads. Where the race was held, just a few miles south of my neighborhood, there was no snow at all, except for just a little bit on a couple of wooden bridges that we crossed during the race. The temperature was 35°F, 81% humidity, no wind, so on the chilly side, but really not to bad for running.

I parked at the rec center, which the race website said to do, but that was about .25 mile from the race start and finish, so I headed over and picked up my race bib, chip, and packet, then went back to my car to drop of the packet and pin my bib on. Since I was so closed to the rec center, I went in there and was able to use a real bathroom inside a heated building with no waiting in line. That was awesome. There were a couple of other women in there who were doing the race and we commented on how awesome that was.

When I left the rec center I had about a half hour left until the race, and so I started running a warm-up. I think I ran about 2 miles, but I'm not sure because I stopped at one point to tighten the drawstring on my pants, and then forgot to restart my watch when I started going again. During my warm-up, I ran into my good friend Bozena (pronounced Bo-zhan-ah), who lives near where the race started. She was walking from her house to the rec center. I had a nice short visit with her and invited her to come watch the end of the race.

After I finished my warm-up, I went over to the start area and there was a long line for the 2 port-o-potties they had there and I was glad I had gone into the rec center.

Miles 1-5: The race got started and it was a bit crowded for the first mile or so, but I felt okay about the pace and things were going well, until the 4th mile, and then things got tough. I slowed down going up the hills because my legs were not cooperating very well. The 5th mile was also tough with a lot of up hill. Splits for this section were 9:07, 8:45, 8:16, 9:34, 9:32. I noticed during this section, I think it was maybe the third and fourth miles, that we were on part of the same trail from the 10 mile race I ran a few weeks ago. But we only stayed on that trail for about 2 miles and then went off somewhere else. I also think it was during this section we started having these stupid speed bump things. About every 10-20 yards, there was a little hill, like an overside speed bump. It usually took me 3-5 steps to get over one of these things. But they just kept coming and made running a decent pace very difficult. Also, towards the end of this section, I saw a woman in a pink shirt up ahead and I decided to try to catch her.

Miles 6-10: The speed bump things continued, but somewhere in here I passed the woman in the pink shirt. As I went past, I said to her that I'd been trying to catch her for a long time. She said, "Well, you passed me." She and I traded leads for a while during this section. A lot of this section was an out-and-back and so we started seeing the race leaders on their way back from the turn-around. I started watching for the women in order to count how far back I was in the women. When I got to the turn-around, I figured that I was the 10th woman. At that point, I was ahead of the pink shirt. On the way back from the turn-around, I was just happy to be a head of all the people that I saw who hadn't reached the turn-around yet. There were some muddy patches in this section and I got a lot of mud on my shoes. Sometimes there were big clumps of mud on the bottom of my shoes that made it hard to run. Splits for this section were 9:09, 8:38, 8:28, 8:45, 9:35.

Miles 11-13.1: The 11th mile was a killer. Lots of uphill. My legs were just trashed and I walked a fair bit in the 11th mile. At this point, the pink shirt passed me and I never caught her again, although she was close enough that I could see her most of the rest of the race. At one point during the 11th mile, there was a race volunteer who said that once we got to the gate it was all downhill from there. I didn't know how far away the gate was, but I just tried to keep going until that gate. I wouldn't say that it was all downhill from the gate, but it was mostly downhill after the gate. Splits for this section were 10:58, 8:40, 8:08. There was a lovely steep hill right before the finish line, and was happy to be able to run up it, but there was a guy who passed me right before the finish line. My watch measured this course at just a few feet over 13 miles, so I don't really have a pace for the .1. The mile that was shorter than what my watch said must have been at the first of the race, because my watch was consistently at about .92 or .93 whenever I passed a mile marker through most of the race.

I figured that I was the 11th woman since pink shirt finished ahead of me. But there must have been someone else in between us that I didn't realize because I ended up being the 12th woman.

I waited around for a bit and ate a couple of pizza rolls that were provided by a local pizzeria until I saw my results, then I walked back to my car and went into the rec center and changed into some dry clothes. I had been relatively comfortable in terms of temperature during the race, but I was absolutely FREEZING on that walk back to my car. Even after I changed into dry clothes, and put my coat on, I was still cold. After I got dressed, I moved my car closer to the start of the race and parked on the street and then went back to the finish line area and waited for the awards ceremony, which started not long after I got there. I found Bozena and her two kids at that point. She hadn't made it to the race before my finish because her daughter was napping, but she came a little later and stayed with me during the awards ceremony. Also, my husband and daughter came to the awards ceremony. They hadn't made it to the race finish either because my husband had to take one of my boys shopping for a birthday present and they couldn't do it until certain stores opened up at 10:00. I finished the race at about 10:30, so my husband didn't make it. I got my little medal in the awards ceremony and I won a gift card for one meal at Qdoba in the raffle. This is the first time I've won anything in the raffle.

I bought some KT tape and taped my knee up last night and the knee didn't give me any trouble during the race or afterwards. I'm just a little stiff generally right now.

This was a stinkin' tough race. In addition to the hills, the overgrown speed bumps, and the mud, there were several really tight turns. Just for kicks, here's the elevation profile:

WildcatMtnHalfElevation

My time in this race can't compete with the road half-marathons that I've done, but I guess it's not too bad for a trail race that I struggled through. I think it would be nice to go out and do training runs on these trails since there so tough, but I would be afraid to of getting lost. Maybe I'll try it sometime anyway if I can get Team Michelle to come with me. I could always use my Garmin to find my way back.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 15.10
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(15)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
0.000.000.00

Snow day. Church is canceled. I figure we've got about 6 inches at this point and it's still coming down, but relatively slowly. We had to drive Thing 1 to work early this morning and we've got to pick him up in about an hour. Other than that, there's nothing to do but stay in the house and eat. Maybe I'll shovel snow at some point.

Night Sleep Time: 9.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 9.00
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.220.006.22

One hour on the treadmill. It was too icy to run outside. I hope the snow and ice melt enough today for me to run outside tomorrow.

I set the treadmill at 1% grade. I measured my heart beat using the sensors on the treadmill right before the end of each mile. I'm listing heart rates in parantheses following the paces here. I started slowly and ran a mile at 10:55 pace (132), then another mile at 10:00 pace (144). Then I went up to 9:31 pace (145) for a mile and increased the pace by .1 mph for each mile thereafter, creating subsequent splits of 9:23 (148), 9:14 (148), and 9:05 (153). I still had a couple of minutes left in my hour after those 6 miles, so I upped the pace to 8:34 (154) for the remaining .22 miles. Average pace was 9:39.

It would take too long for me to drive to work (where the treadmill is) and back early in the morning, especially since I had to drive to seminary today. So in order to eliminate an extra round trip to the office, I got up early (but not as early as I should have - see below) and worked for a while in the morning and then came in to work after all the kids had gone to school and ran on the treadmill then.

As I drove up to my office this morning, I realized that I had neglected to bring a towel. I could have driven back home to get one, but it would have taken me about a half an hour to get there and back. There's a new Target close to my office and I figured we could use some new towels anyway, so I went to Target and bought a towel. That little detour probably took me about 15 minutes.

Now for an explanation of why I did not get up as early as I should have. 1) I was up until midnight reading a book. I'm often like this when I read a book. I do nothing but read until I finish the book. The book was Catching Fire, the second book in the The Hunger Games series. 2) My daughter came and climbed into bed with me around 4 am because she had had a bad dream. I finally sent her back to her own room at about 5 am. The good news is that the third book in the The Hunger Games series hasn't been published yet, so I can maybe go to bed on time tonight instead of staying up to read.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 6.22
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.150.008.15

Easy eight + shred level 2.

5:24 am, 34° F, 49% humidity, wind 9 SSE.

I decided to venture out wearing the shoes with the most tread. This had the added benefit of knocking the mud from last Saturday's race off of the shoes. I did the County Line Road loop. The portion along County Line Road made me nervous because I had to run closer to traffic than I am comfortable doing on account of the frozen slop that has been deposited by the snow plows. I was going against traffic, there were two lanes each direction, and not much traffic at that time in the morning. Most cars went into the other lane to avoid me, but a couple didn't, which surprised me because I was easily visible with my headlamp and reflective vest. Even more surprising was a guy who was on foot who nearly ran into me. He was walking toward me on the sidewalk and I was on the road. Just as we crossed paths, he decided to step down from the sidewalk into the road. I guess the ice on the sidewalk got too bad at that point. He did not have a light or anything reflective and I didn't see him until he was pretty close to me, but apparently he didn't see me at all. He was wearing a hoody and was hunched down peering at the ground and nearly walked right into me. I said, "excuse me," and he acted really surprised that I was there.

Once I turned the corner onto Quebec Street and got back into Highlands Ranch, I had mostly plowed sidewalks with just some icy spots from yesterday's snow melt.

As I was waiting to turn the corner from Quebec onto University, I saw the old guy with the stiff arm again. He was turning the same way I was going, but I was on the other side of the street and was waiting for a light, so he got a good head start on me. I caught up with him after a while, and then he caught up with me because we both had to wait for a light near the high school. I spoke with him very briefly. He didn't seem very anxious to talk. He said he was running 6 miles and I'm pretty sure of the route he takes given the various places I have seen him. He probably lives in the retirement community that's adjacent to my back yard. I'm impressed that he gets out there and runs consistently.

AP: 9:18. Splits: 9:41, 9:06, 9:18, 9:49, 9:51, 9:04, 8:44, 8:54.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 8.15
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.50
Comments(7)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.270.008.27

Easy Eight + Level 2 Shred.

4:56 am, 34° F, 51% humidity, wind 9 SE.

Almost the same weather as yesterday, almost the same distance, almost the same pace, slightly different route, somewhat less ice.

AP: 9:22. Splits: 9:50, 9:42, 9:41, 9:34, 9:11, 9:08, 9:07, 8:51.


Brooks ST3 Miles: 8.27
Night Sleep Time: 6.25Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.25
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.640.008.64

Easy Eight Super-Sized + Level 2 Shred.

5:31 am, 34° F, 48% humidity, winds calm.

This was the third day in the row of exactly the same temperature and similar humidity during my run. The only difference was I didn't have the wind today that I had the last two days.

I did the Broadway loop, which takes me almost to my office, but I did it in the opposite direction that I normally do. So instead of starting with rolling hills with mostly downhill and finishing with a long, gradual uphill, I started (after the first mile or so) with a long, gradual downhill, and finished with rolling hills with mostly uphill. I think I like it better this way. While the rolling hills that go mostly uphill are steeper and probably have more total uphill than the long gradual uphill, I prefer the rolling hills because I at least get a little relief periodically.

I have trouble getting myself up and out the door as early as I ought to on days that I don't have to drive to seminary. So I'm a little behind schedule now because of my late start. But I have a little cushion because I'm working from home so that I can go to a little Thanksgiving lunch with my daughter at the elementary school.

AP: 9:29. Splits: 10:14, 9:48, 9:35, 9:25, 9:32, 9:33, 9:09, 8:58, and 0.64 miles @ 8:58 pace.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 8.64
Night Sleep Time: 6.50Nap Time: 1.50Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.070.006.07

Easy run.

5:12 am, 34° (for the 4th day in a row), 51% humidity, wind 6 SSE.

I guess I've really worn myself out this week. I was slow this morning. I hope my taking it slow and easy today gets me rested up enough for tomorrow. I'm doing a virtual mile race with Tracy tomorrow morning.

AP: 10:01. Splits: 10:26, 10:07, 10:08, 10:04, 9:59, 9:25.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 6.07
Night Sleep Time: 6.75Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.75
Comments(14)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
13.081.0014.08

Virtual Mile Race Time - 6:35.

6:03 am, 45°F, 25% humidity, wind 9 SSE.

I took a very out-of-the-way route to the track and ran about a lap and a half on the track for warmup before I started the timed mile. I ended up doing 3 miles of warm up with a couple of strides thrown in. The timed mile was tough. I think I did the first lap in about 1:31, but then I slowed down a bit on each subsequent lap. I did manage to push it just a little bit the last 20 yards or so. After I finished the timed mile, I walked for a half a lap, and then took a two mile route back home for a total of 6 miles.

AP: 9:24. Splits: 10:05, 9:39, 9:55, 6:35, 10:34, 9:34.

7:36 am, 46°, 12% humidity, wind 9 SW with some stronger gusts.

After I got home from the timed mile run, I put on dry running clothes, grabbed a banana and drove to the Highline Canal Trail to run with Team Michelle. The trail was in lousy shape today. I guess it had been muddy during the week and so there were foot prints, paw prints, and bicycle tire tracks frozen into the dirt. It was very bumpy. Also, there were several big stretches that were covered in icy snow. I had worn racing flats for my early morning track session, but switched to the trail shoes for this run and I was glad. I had a little easier time on the icy stretches than the Michelles did on account of my trail shoes. I actually felt colder on this second run than I did on the first run. I was tired. It was kind of a tough run. Michelle #1 picked up the pace a little bit on the last stretch, but I didn't have it in me at that point.

AP: 9:47. Splits: 9:46, 9:45, 9:37, 9:50, 10:01, 9:51, 9:44, 9:41.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 6.07Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 8.01
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(12)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.340.008.34

Easy Eight on the MacArthur Ranch Road loop.

 5:24 am, 31°F, 67% humidity, winds calm. It snowed very lightly for about one minute during my run.

I really started out slowly this morning and it took me quite a while to get going, but it turned into an unintentional easy progression run. AP: 9:46. Splits: 10:38, 10:32, 10:10, 9:58, 9:31, 9:15, 9:13, 8:56. I had a little pain in my right shin for the first couple of miles, but then it went away.

I don't think my son is going to run the Turkey Day 5K this Thursday because he's sick with a sore throat and bad cough. We kept him home from church yesterday and I'm going to keep him home from school today. He had an extraordinarily busy week last week rehearsing and then playing in the orhcestra for a play his school was doing. I guess it was more than his body could handle.

I was going to drive to seminary today and have the other guy drive tomorrow (the kids are off school Wed-Fri this week), but the other guy came up to me at church yesterday and said that he wanted to drive both days this week and furthermore, he wants to drive 3 days/week all the time. He says that having to drive to seminary forces him to get up and gives him enough time to go to the gym after the seminary drop-off, but when he doesn't drive to seminary he sleeps in and misses the gym. I'm happy to let him drive 3 days/week because I run regardless of whether I'm driving, but I can either run longer or head out slightly later on the days I don't have to drive to seminary.

I just noticed something when I went to the website to check the start time of this Thursday's race. Here's the URL: http://www.highlandsranchchamber.org/td5k/. In the picture on the main page, right in the lower-left corner, in the purple, is my running friend Michelle #1 and I'm right behind her looking dorky in a light blue hat and a dark blue hoody. The picture is from last year's race.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 8.34
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 1.00Total Sleep Time: 9.00
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
10.070.0010.07

Easyish run.

5:16 am, 23° F, 39% humidity, wind 7 SE.

I ran the Broadway loop counter-clockwise, which meant downhill for the first half and uphill for the second half. I was going to go beyond Broadway to the road that my office is on to make the route a little longer, but I missed the turn, so I added some extra in the neighborhood at the end instead to bump it up to 10 miles (my standard Broadway loop is about 8.5 miles). I managed to run the second half faster than the first despite that the second half was uphill. It's quite common for me to run negative splits, but on most of my routes, the first half is uphill and the second half is downhill, so it's nice to see that I can run a negative split even when the second half is uphill instead of downhill.

AP: 9:11. Splits: 10:07, 9:30, 9:34, 9:16, 9:36, 9:03, 8:49, 8:34, 8:50, 8:34.

I wish I could take a nap now, but I've got to take a shower and go to work. Maybe I can sleep in a little the rest of the week since my kids don't have school.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 10.07
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(12)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.320.006.32

Easy run with unintentional progression.

6:16 am, 31° F, 54% humidity, calm.

I took advantage of the lack of school for my kids today to play hooky from the sub-6 club. I felt surprisingly good on this run. I hope I didn't wear myself out too much before tomorrow's little race.

AP: 9:30. Splits: 10:11, 9:54, 9:32, 9:21, 9:12, 9:02, 0.32 @ 8:44.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 6.32
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(9)
Race: Highlands Ranch Turkey Day 5K (3.1 Miles) 00:23:14, Place overall: 24, Place in age division: 6
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
5.003.108.10

I checked the temperature before I left for the race, and it looked like it would be fairly warm, so I wore just one shirt, but I brought my ear band thingie even though I didn't wear it initially. When I got there, it felt quite cold because of the wind. The temperature was 40°, but the wind was 12 mph. I had to park quite a ways away because there were lots and lots of people at this race. I walked from my car to the packet pickup area and got my bib, timing chip, and shirt, and then walked back to my car. I had a sweatshirt on then, but I didn't want to run in it and it felt like it would be too cold with just one shirt, so I put on the race shirt (a long sleeved T) over my first shirt and pinned the number to the race shirt. I put on my gloves and ear band thingie.

I was able to use a park bathroom near where I parked with no line because it was so far from the race start, then I ran a 2 mile warmup around the park. I could tell at that point that I would be too warm when the wind was behind me, but I didn't have time or want to go to the trouble of moving the bib to my first shirt. I went over and lined up not too far behind the start line. Still, it took me 22 seconds to get to the start line when the race started. It was quite crowded at the start, which made it difficult to get going very fast for the first little while.

Roughly the first mile and a half was mostly uphill, but not steep. I had to push to keep a decent pace, but I knew the downhill was coming. The second half of the race was mostly downhill, so I was able to pick up the pace a bit and finished fairly strong. I should have gone with my initial plan to wear just one shirt, because I ended up being too warm for most of the race. I just took my gloves off and carried them. There wasn't time to make any more drastic wardrobe modifications. This race was painful and I would have liked to quit, but I just kept telling myself that it would be over soon and forced myself to keep going. And I managed to have a kick at the end. Average pace was 7:29. Splits were 8:02, 7:30, 7:02, with the last 0.1 at 6:33 pace.

After the race, I collected some food and my swag bag and hung around for a bit and then walked back out to my car. By that time, people were leaving, so I moved my car closer to the race finish and then got out and ran 3 miles at an average pace of 9:31 so that I would have 8 miles for the day. By the time I finished, they had results posted, so I checked and saw that I was 6th in my division, so I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony. I needed to get home and get cooking.

I suppose it was a fun race, but it wasn't that exciting for me. I went to the race by myself and did not have anyone to cheer me or meet me at the end. I'm not having a pity party. I'm just saying that I just went and ran and then came home, and that's about all there was to it. They had a kids fun run, but I missed it because I was off exploring neighborhoods on my 3 mile run.

I should be happy. It was a 5K PR by almost a minute. I've got the Colder Bolder 5K a week from Saturday, so I'll see how I do then. I think that my friend Michelle is going to come do that with me, though we will be in different waves, so that won't be as lonely. Also, it shouldn't be as crowded because of the waves, so I'll have to see if I can run any faster there.

Nike Lunarracer Miles: 8.10
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(12)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
6.120.006.12

Standard six on autopilot.

6:25 am, 41°F, 22% humidity, wind 5 SSE.

I really didn't feel like running when I got up this morning, but I made myself get out and do it anyway. It was an unremarkable run, so I'll quit trying to remark about it, except for the stats.

AP: 9:48. Splits: 10:23, 9:58, 9:48, 9:42, 9:38, 9:18.

I have to go to work today, at least for a while. My husband and oldest son have been out shopping since very early this morning.

I finished reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time yesterday. It was a very interesting book. The first person narrator says at the beginning of the book that he is 15 years, 3 months, and 3 days old. Yesterday, while I was reading the book, my second son, who shares a few characteristics to a mild degree with the first person narrator, was 15 years, 3 months, and 5 days old.

Brooks ST3 Miles: 6.12
Night Sleep Time: 8.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 8.00
Comments(9)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
14.000.0014.00

Long run on the Highline Canal Trail.

7:30 am, 39° (to start) - 47° (to end), 28% humidity, wind 8 SW.

I ran with just Michelle #2 today because Michelle #1 had to take her parents to the airport. We did 6 together and then I did 8 more on my own. The trail was still a little rough and icy in spots, but not as bad as last week.

AP: 9:10. Splits: 9:30, 9:22, 9:26, 9:15, 9:34, 9:30, 9:20, 8:52, 8:54, 9:00, 9:21, 8:51, 9:08, 8:24. The only mile where I consciously tried to run a little faster was the last mile.

I'm wondering to do about my long run next week since I'm doing the Colder Bolder 5K on Saturday. I could try to do the extra miles later in the day on Saturday (not likely to happen), do extra miles during the week (might make me too tired for the race), or just let it go and have a lower mileage week. I guess I'm kind of leaning towards the last one.

Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 14.00
Night Sleep Time: 7.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 7.00
Comments(11)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
8.170.008.17

Easy Eight on the County Line Road loop.

5:21 am, 29°F, 54% humidity, wind 8-10 SE.

I used this run to clear my head and release my frustrations and stress. Now if I can just carry through with my resolves to be a better person.

Incidentally, I got passed by a runner this morning and I made note of his gait when he was in front of me. He seemed to be taking small steps, keeping his feet under his center of gravity, and maintaining a pretty fast cadence. He was going faster than I was.

AP: 9:30. Splits: 10:04, 9:55, 9:33, 9:26, 9:30, 9:17, 9:19, 9:06.

Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 8.17
Night Sleep Time: 6.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 6.00
Comments(8)
Slow milesFast milesTotal Distance
179.7433.66213.40
Brooks Adrenaline Trail Miles: 78.49Nike Lunarracer Miles: 57.82Brooks ST3 Miles: 49.20Brooks Adrenaline Miles: 27.89
Night Sleep Time: 181.50Nap Time: 2.50Total Sleep Time: 184.00
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