Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run + 5 x 8 sec. hill sprints.

7:41, am, 56° F, 88% humidity, winds 3 N, partly cloudy, muggy.

I met up with Michelle for a short run this morning. We don't usually run together on weekdays, but our schedules are more open today because of the holiday. She ran further than I did because it is further from her house to the meeting point than it is from my house. Also, she continued on while I stopped and did the hill sprints. We took a very small detour during the run to check the reservation list at a park where we're planning to have a bar-b-que this afternoon. It looks like it's not reserved.

At one point, I had been planning to run the Bolder Boulder with Lindsay today, but then Lindsay got pregnant and decided not to do it. I didn't want to do it bad enough to haul myself up to Boulder and run it by myself, so I didn't.

It was very muggy this morning. That is unusual around here.

Since I had a short run and I have extra time today, I had to take advantage of the situation and do the shred today after my run. I did level 2, but I stuck with Anita on any squats or lunges. My left quad is feeling better, but it's not quite 100% and I didn't want to hurt it.

I was fairly slow on the 3 miles, but then tried to run the hill sprints faster than I have been doing lately.

AP: 10:10. Splits: 10:25, 9:54, 9:45. Pace on hill sprints: 6:33, 5:35, 6:50, 6:08, 6:29.

Easy run

6:27 am, 48-52° F, 33% humidity, wind 7 SSE, sunny.

I didn't have a fartlek run on my schedule today like I've had the last 3 Tuesdays and like I have next Tuesday. I just had an easy run. But I was somewhat surprised when I looked at me splits to realize that it had turned into an unintentional progression run. I never ran very fast, though.

AP: 9:43. Splits: 10:18, 10:0, 9:57, 9:30, 9:20, 9:13, 0.18 @ 8:44.

Easy run

6:25 am, 49-52° F, 48% humidity, wind 1 E, overcast.

This run was almost a repeat of yesterday's run - nearly the same distance, nearly the same average pace, nearly the same weather, slightly different route. But today I didn't look at my watch at all during the run. I wore the watch, but I just ran by feel.

I thought about doing the shred today, but my left quad is still a little sore and I've got a big run tomorrow, so I didn't want to wear myself out today.

AP: 9:45. Splits: 10:09, 9;50, 9:56, 9:33, 9:40, 9:23, 0.16 @ 9:22.

Progression run - 8 miles w/ last 15 min. moderate.

6:10 am, 63-66° F, 55% humidity, wind 7 SSE, cloudy.

I stayed up kind of late last night watching the Rockies finally win a game.

A few minutes after I got up this morning, I heard my sprinklers turn on. That would be fine, except that my oldest and youngest children were sleeping in a tent in the back yard. I let the sprinklers run while I was getting ready because they start in the front yard. But then I turned them off before I left on my run. I rescheduled them to run tomorrow morning instead, and so my son will need to take the tent down today.

I wore my sunglasses on this run, thinking that the sun would come out from behind the clouds while I was out, but it never did. It felt hot and muggy to me. I know it wasn't as hot as it is for Bonnie in Arizona, or as humid as it is for the Quiet Pirate in North Carolina, but it was more than I am used to.

I ran a route today that I haven't run in a really long time. It started and ended the same way all my runs do, but the mid section took me further south than I usually go. I wonderful feature of this route is that there is lots of uphill in the first half, particularly the 2nd and 4th miles. My training plan said to run the last 15 minutes at a moderate pace and uphill, if possible. I have to admit that my last 15 minutes were mostly downhill. However, there was a quite a bit of uphill, including my hill sprint hill, in the last 1/4 of a mile. Also, I had to stop twice for lights in the first 5 minutes of the last 15 minutes. I paused my watch when I was stopped.

I've done several fast-finish runs like this lately and I had not managed to get my last mile under my magic "fast miles" threshhold of 8:30. My goal today was to get the last mile into the "fast miles" bucket.

AP: 9:20. Splits: 9:49, 9:54, 9:26, 9:45, 9:27, 9:24, 8:38, 8:20.

Easy run.

6:15 am, 47-50° F, 47% humidity, wind 3 ENE, sunny.

I started really slowly today and tried to keep it slow and easy, though I couldn't help but speed up a wee bit on the nice long gradual downhill in mile 3. At about mile 2.5, I ran through several big sprinklers that were obscuring my path.

It's a busy morning this morning trying to get my two middle children off to stake youth conference. They should leave in about one minute. Fortunately, I don't have to drive them.

AP: 10:02. Splits: 10:32, 9:58, 9:44, 9:50.

Progression run - 9 miles with the last 20 minutes moderate.

6:48 am, 50-57° F, humidity 37-24%, winds calm, not too sunny.

Michelle and I did the same run that we did last Saturday, but we were a little bit faster for the whole run than we were last Saturday. This was our last run together for a few weeks because she's running UVM next Saturday and then is still out of town the Saturday after that. But she said today that she's thinking of running the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon in August, so that means she'll keep running throughout the summer, which makes me happy.

The plan says to run the last 20 minutes moderate, and we probably ran a moderate pace for 10 or 15 minutes, but then it got pretty hard at the end. I think by the last 1/4 of a mile we were running around a 7:00 pace. I know that's an easy pace for some of you (jun), but that's a hard pace for me, especially at the end of 9 miles.

After we were done I wasn't able to take the time to do my normal stretch routine. I had to hurry home and take a shower and then take my boys to youth conference and then go to my daughter's gymnastics class. This was her last class of this session. For the next session, she'll be having class on Tuesday evenings, so it won't impact my Saturday running.

This afternoon I've got to take my oldest boy to the airport. He's going to Boise for 8 weeks for a math internship.

AP: 9:28. Splits: 10:06, 9:43, 9:31, 9:25, 9:46, 9:46, 9;43, 8:59, 8:15.