Same Time, Same Channel

Day off.

This doesn't have anything to do with running, but my choir did an AWESOME job today.
We sang "Pilgrim's Hymn" by Stephen Paulus. This song is on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's CD Consider the Lilies. The Tabernacle Choir does it in 8 parts and a capella. We did it in 4 parts and with the piano because we went way flat when we tried to do it a capella. Still they did a really great job today. Now we've just got to learn 5 songs for Christmas.

Easy run with negative splits and just a little extra effort the last 2 miles. Average pace: 10:03.

Outside temp: 47°F

The t.v. news said it was 36°, but that's the temperature at their studio. That's the temperature I've been going by up until today. But last Saturday evening I bought a window thermometer and it said 47 this morning. It felt more like 47, so I'm going with that, even though I'm not sure how accurate the window thermometer is since it's on the outside of one of my windows, so close to the house. I think it's probably a little colder if you get farther from buildings.

I felt pretty congested when I got up this morning and I overslept just a little bit, but I got up and did the shred anyway, though I moved a little slower and didn't get as many reps of some things as I usually do. And then I went for a run. I started slowly, but got feeling a little better as time went on and finished my last mile in 9:19.

I had been doing hill sprints on Mondays, but I think I'm going to drop the hill sprints for the time being, at least until I get over this cold.

Easy/Progression Run. Average pace: 9:52.

Outside temp 53°F

This was supposed to be an easy run, but it was actually kind of hard for the first half because there was a moderate wind from the south and the first half was mostly uphill and going south into the wind. I kept going looking forward to turning the corner at the half way point and heading north, downhill, with the wind behind me.

My split times were 10:25, 10:41, 10:25, 9:44, 9:16, 8:57, 9:40.

The last mile was slower because it had more uphill and came south again.

I ate some cookies yesterday that I shouldn't have. I've got to do better today. I'd like to lose 5 lbs. in the near term, and then maybe another 10 after that in the longer term.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:29.

Outside temp: 50°F, light wind that seemed more significant when I was running into it.

I was really tired this morning (still am). I was quite congested when I got up. This cold doesn't seem to be getting really bad, but it's not getting better yet either.

I did the level 3 shred, drove the boy, then ran. I just could not get going with any speed today. In looking at my stats in Training Center, I see that only one of the six miles had more descent than ascent. No wonder it felt like it was all up hill this morning.

My average pace was actually probably just slightly faster than 10:29. The first mile got off because the driver of a call-and-ride bus stopped me in a neighborhood and asked me where a street was. I wasn't much help to him. He was looking for Lark Sparrow Trail. We were on Lark Sparrow Drive. There's also Lark Sparrow Street, and Lark Sparrow Way, and Lark Sparrow Court, etc. That's the way neighborhood streets are named around here. It's insane. I know which one is Lark Sparrow Drive because it's the big one that winds all the way through the neighborhood. But I couldn't tell him where to find Lark Sparrow Trail. I did find it a little later on my run, but I couldn't communicate that to the driver at that point.

I'm reading a book called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. It's a memoir and is kind of a fun read. While I was eating breakfast this morning, I read his description of an ultramarathon (62 miles) that the author ran one time. I kept thinking about Deborah, The Little Engine That Could. It gave me a whole new appreciation for what she does.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:03/mile.

Outside temp: 33°F, very fine mist

I knew I was in for it when I went to drive my son to seminary and had to scrape 1/4" of solid ice off of the windows of my car. However, the Smartwool socks that I ordered last week came in the mail yesterday and it wasn't a minute too soon. Those socks are magic, I'm tellin' ya. While various parts of me were alternating between two hot and too cold throughout the run, my feet were just right the whole time. I bought two pairs of the socks because I wanted to try them out and make sure I got the right size before getting more, but I may just have to order a couple more pairs today.

I ran without my glasses again on account of not wanting them to get fogged up with my breath coming up out of the neck gator. I tend to imagine things when I don't wear my glasses because things look fuzzy and I'm not sure what they are. For example, this morning, I thought there was some kind of animal scooting through the gutter, but it turned out to be a shadow.

I need to head in to work in a few minutes and I'm afraid I'm going to have to scrape my car again. We've just had this steady, misty drizzle the whole morning. Fortunately the streets and sidewalks weren't icy when I ran because the ground is warmer than the surface of my car.

My gifted but hard-headed and sometimes foolish 6th grader insisted on wearing shorts and a sweatshirt but no coat to school today. I offered him new gloves and he refused them. I told him I felt like a negligent parent letting him go out the door like that, but he insisted that he is fine. I hope he's cold all day so that he learns his lesson. He doesn't seem to think that it's necessary to dress warmly unless it's snowing.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:07

Outside temp at start: 50°F

Outside temp at end: 58°F

I'm taking the day off work today, so rather than run at 6:15 this morning when it was 30°F outside, I got all the kids off to school and then went for my run when it was considerably warm. I also managed to do the shred in between getting the first and second kids to school.

My legs felt very heavy when I started out today. I did feel a little better by the end, but never felt great. I felt much better yesterday. I guess you can't have two good running days in a row. At least I never seem to.

I had negative splits today up until the last mile, which was the same pace as the 4th mile.

I've got to clean house today because my in-laws are coming on Sunday (that's why I'm taking the day off from work). They're just coming for a couple of days so that they can go to Grandparents Day with my daughter. They're not staying for Thanksgiving.

**update**

I took a nap this afternoon instead of cleaning out my refrigerator.

Long run. Average pace: 9:51.

Outside temp: 37°F

I ran on the same trail that I ran 2 weeks ago with some friends who are training for the Honolulu Marathon. But this time I ran from the park/rec center instead of from his parents' house. I suspected that I might see them on the trail because I knew that they were planning to run 21 miles today on the same trail. It's a very popular trail because it is very long and miraculously rural in the middle of the Denver metro area. There are even horses boarded at some points along the trail. It's not a loop, so you have to run it out and back. I started out going north and headed towards my friend's parents' house. My friends started at his parents' house and went south and then we both turned around and changed directions at some point, and so I passed them twice. The first time they didn't recognize me. I recognized them because I was kind of expecting them and because the two of them with their dog are harder to miss. The second time I talked with them briefly as we passed.

There were a lot of runners on the trail today. And I saw a lot of runners in the rec center parking lot where I parked. It's a popular place to start from. I had a nice talk with a guy when I was stretching at the end of my run. He was impressed that 6 months before my first marathon I'm able to run 14 miles.

I kept a fairly steady pace throughout the run, but then decided to try to push it to the fastest pace that I could maintain over the last mile. I ran the last mile in 9:01. I can run faster than that on shorter runs, but I thought that was pretty good after being tired from having just run 13 miles.

I'll probably continue to use that trail for long runs because it is very well suited to them. I went north from the rec center today. I'll probably go south from the rec center next Saturday and explore that part of the trail.