Same Time, Same Channel

Speed Intervals: 3 miles easy, 14 x 1 min @ 5K pace/1 min. easy, 3 miles easy.

Weather at 6:00 am: 34°F, 68% humidity, wind avg. 6 mph, gusting to 12 mph, S.

I was supposed to do 15 intervals instead of 14 but I got messed up on the counting. I tried to use the workout feature on my Garmin, which I have never used before. I programmed the workout into the Garmin correctly, but then I wasn't sure whether the Garmin automatically recorded a lap each time it started a new step in the workout, so I was hitting the lap button manually at the beginning and end of each interval. As it turns out, the Garmin was doing it automatically too, and so I got through the intervals twice as fast as I was supposed to. I finally realized this when the Garmin said the workout was done and I knew I was nowhere near done. I wasn't sure how many intervals I had done though, because I had stopped hitting the lap button manually at some point. So I just guessed and did 5 more intervals, timing them manually. It turns out I had done 9 before (though the 9th was almost 2 minutes because the Garmin quit the workout before I realized it), so I had a total of 14 intervals. I was supposed to do 15. Oh well. So now I know how the workouts feature works and I'll use it again next time I have a relatively complicated workout that I need help keeping track of.

Incidentally, my pace on the intervals was: 8:21, 8:12, 7:50, 8:17, 8:24, 8:08, 8:30, 8:39, 8:48, 7:40, 7:41, 8:28, 7:50, 7:41. According to McMillan, may 5K pace is 8:47, so I was a little under that most of the time. The last 5 I didn't look at the pace on the watch at all. I just ran by feel and with one exception was about a minute faster/mile than I was supposed to be.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:10.

Weather at 6 am: 30°F, 47% humidity, just a little wind part of the time, full moon in the west followed by sunrise in the east.

I ran my normal 10 mile route that I've done a lot recently, but in reverse. I never realized how many downhills there are when I go my standard direction. I saw more runners than usual out this morning.

I almost got hit by a car. The problem always comes when I'm running along the left side of a street and someone is turning right from a side street onto the street I'm running on. They look left the whole time and never look to the right until after they've started moving. That's what happened this morning. The car was stopped and there was some traffic coming from the car's left, so I started going, but then the car started pulling forward, and so I stopped. The driver then looked to the right and saw me and stopped. She mouthed "sorry" and then I continued on. She was probably more shaken up by it than I was. I've had this situation several times as a runner. I'm going to have to pay attention to whether I look to the right when I'm in that situation as a driver.

Easy run 8.5 miles + 10 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:20.

Weather at 5:30 am: 20°F, 83% humidity, wind 10 mph S. We got maybe a half inch of snow last night and it stuck to the grass, but only to some sidewalks. The sidewalks and road shoulders that I ran on were sometimes clear, mostly had a thin layer of crunchy snow, and in a handful of spots, were icy and slick. I slipped probably 5 times, but was always able to keep my balance and didn't fall.

I went a little slower on the hill sprints than I have other times. Maybe I was more tired, or maybe it was because of the little bit of snow/ice on the hill. In any case, my paces on the hill sprints were: 8:29, 8;12, 8:42, 8:26, 8:54, 8:03, 8:24, 9:12, 9:14, 8:25.

By new boss is supposed to arrive in Denver today. She lives in Singapore, but has been in California for the last couple of days. I've never met her before - only talked on the phone within the last couple of weeks. She's a runner, so we'll have to see if we can work out a time to run together while she's here.

Threshhold run - 2 miles easy (11:02/mile), 15 minutes @ half-marathon pace (9:21/mile), 2 minutes easy (10:54/mile), 15 minutes @ half-marathon pace (9:14/mile), 3 miles easy (10:06/mile)

Weather at 5:30 am: 22°F, 58% humidity, wind 7 mph S.

I had a busy morning but managed to get the run in. I don't have much to say about this run except that it is hard for my to run at a targeted pace when it's dark because I have to check my watch so often to make sure I'm on pace, and while I wear a head lamp (it probably needs new batteries) and I can turn the light on the watch, it's just harder to see the watch.

I met my boss last night. She seems very nice. But she does think I'm a little crazy to run 6 days/week. I've got a 5 mile easy run planned for tomorrow, so we're going to see if we can find a time to run together tomorrow. She leaves tomorrow night.

Easy run with my boss. Average pace was not too bad while we were running, but I don't have a good figure for the average pace because we walked a fair chunk at the end. We had just a little bit of snow last night, so it was cold and slick. She had never seen snow in her life before yesterday. With the cold and snow and the elevation and hills, she was kind of thrown for a loop. Also, I'm actively training for a marathon right now and she's not. We had intended to go 5 miles, but we cut the run short. I hope I didn't make her feel bad.

Progression run - 16+ miles with last 30 minutes hard and uphill.

Weather: 26°F, 72% humidity, hardly any wind.

This was a very difficult run in many ways. I left the house after some discord at home. I got started and my legs felt heavy and I was worrying about having to do 30 minutes hard at the end of the run. And then a mile into my run I did something that I've never done on a run that I can recall. I fell down. I tripped over an uneven spot in the sidewalk and fell forward. I caught myself with my hands and since I had gloves on, I got my gloves dirty and didn't scrape up my hands. And I didn't even fall hard enough to tear a hole in my gloves. But I must have banged my left knee just a little bit. I think I have a small bruise. I wasn't really hurt, but I kind of wanted to cry and just turn around and go home. But I didn't cry. And I didn't go home. I got up and dusted myself off and kept going.

I ran the first 13 miles at an average pace of 10:06. In truth, some of it was considerably slower than that and some was considerably faster. This route has a really significant downhill stretch for about 4.5 miles starting at mile 7, so my pace was around 9:00 through that section, though I was trying to keep it easy because I knew that what goes down must come up when you're running a loop. I started the real uphill after mile 12 and then started running harder a mile later. My pace on the last 30 minutes (3.36 miles) was 8:55. It was definitely hard. I really had to dig deep to finish this run. And the second that my watch said it had been 30 minutes for the last part, I stopped and walked the rest of the way home. It was only a few house lengths anyway.

I'm glad this run is over. Now I've got to drive up to Fort Collins to attend the all-state orchestra concert that my son is playing in. He's first chair in the bass section. Less that sound too impressive, there are two all-state orchestras, and he is in the lower one. Still, we're proud of him for winning section leader. He didnt' feel like his audition went very well, but apparently it was better than the others.