Same Time, Same Channel

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.