Cool Runnings!

Ran two miles with my boys and Sparky when I got home from work - 1.5 miles with Sam and Sparky, then another .5 miles with Joey and Sparky. No recorded distance for running with Adam. I will need to get in some more miles this evening.

Later that evening . . .

Ran another 4 miles after Lybi got back from her run with Christine.  Ran without the Garmin, just with my regular watch.  Kinda sorta checked my splits - I glanced at the watch when I was reasonably sure I had just hit the mile split.  This ended up being a progression run of sorts, since each mile was faster than the previous.  Last .1 I kicked into 10K race pace and worked on my form - lifting the knee, pushing off with the toe - and away I went.  I was suitably impressed at how quickly my pace increased just by those few things.  Anyway, total time for the run was 29:08, average pace of 7:17/mile. 

Ran 3.5 miles after work with all my boys and Sparky, each one separately. Ran 1.5 miles with Sam, I think he set a new record for the time. Then ran 0.5 with Joey. Ran an unnamed distance with Adam, then came back and took Sparky for 1.5 miles at a nice 7:30 pace. Lybi has practice for her piano Cavalcade event until 8:30, so I will have to do the other 4 or so miles when she gets back (and probably after she runs with Christine). Need to work on getting to bed earlier tonight - I was tired this morning, and am a little concerned that I might be starting to get sick again. I will have to wait and see.

Ran another mile with the 3 boys in the jogging stroller (man, they are getting heavy), and Sparky on the side.  Did not time the run.  One kind of scary incident where Sparky decided to stop paying attention to the stroller and start growling at a couple of dogs - he got his foot or leg or something like that run over by the wheel of the stroller.  I think he learned his lesson, though :)  This mile really tired me out with all the weight I was pushing.

Ran another 2.5 miles in the evening - was short on time, so I decided to push the pace.  The run felt good, but this may not have been the wisest choice - I am definitely feeling worse now from a health perspective.  First mile was 7:03, second mile 6:33, last .5 something like 3:11.  Average pace was 6:42/mile.  Based on how I feel right now, looks like tomorrow will be either a very light day or no mileage so I can recover.  I really need to get more sleep.

No running today, I felt sick, so I slept in and stayed home from work.  A nice 10 hours of sleep can do wonders for the sick body.

Felt much better today.  Ran 2.1 miles with Lybi, Sam, Joseph, Adam and Sparky (2 in the double jogging stroller, one running, and one of us holding the leash).  It felt good to get out and run, even if the pace was super slow.  Then I did another 2.9 miles later to make it an even 5 miles for the day.

Lybi already gave an accounting of last night, so I won't bore you with the details a second time.  Needless to say, it was a rough night.

Ran 6 miles in the nice cool wet air (we had rain all day today, but it conveniently stopped when it was time for me to run).  In spite of the lack of sleep, the run felt really good.  A little bit of tightness on the outside of my left knee - will stretch it out good.  Total time was  44:52, average pace of 7:29/mile.

So today was a major cleaning day - after I had to spend a couple of hours working on a computer-related issue that I got a page on, I helped Lybi and the boys do a major cleanup job on the house.  The boys cleaned their room, I cleaned the family room, moved all the furniture to vacuum the whole floor.  Good hard work.  I went back to road runner sports and returned my axioms (they gave me HUGE blood blisters on each foot when I ran my 1/2 marathon) - thankfully they have a 60-day no questions asked return policy on their shoes.  Haven't decided yet which shoes to buy to replace them with - tried on the Asics DS Trainers and the Nike Zoom Elite+, like the wide toe box in the Asics, like the extra cushioning in the Nikes, but they have a pretty narrow toe box.  Got home, and after Lybi's piano lessons, we spent several hours making and baking the best bread ever!  She got a wonderful whole wheat bread recipe that uses fresh ground wheat, special yeast called SAF yeast, honey, salt and oil, plus a natural dough enhancer.  We had a good time making the bread, and an even better time eating it!  All the FRB'ers who come to run Del Sol will get a chance to sample . . .

With all that going on, I was fairly wiped out, and thoroughly unmotivated to run.  Lybi somehow helped me to pluck up the nerve to get out and at least do my 6 miles, which I did.  Once I got going, I felt really good, although I was a bit wheezy from having inhaled some wheat dust when we were grinding the wheat.  Today's run ended up basically being a progressive tempo run, finishing at LT pace.  Miles were as follows:

Mile 1	7:28
Mile 2	7:11
Mile 3	6:54
Mile 4	6:59
Mile 5	6:45
Mile 6	6:34

 Felt good throughout, no pain in the side of my knee, although I stretched out my IT band before I got going, and I think that helped.  Overall, good run, probably better that I didn't do a real long run today, guess I'll have to deal with Lybi beating me in weekly mileage for another week :)  Hopefully I will be able to get going next week and get a run in every day, as well as stay healthy, so that I can get my mileage up over 40.  I think right now the plan will be to do 7 miles every day to put me at 42.  I won't have much time to do more on Saturday, as Lybi has cavalcade, which she will need to spend most of the day on.