Cool Runnings!

Lunch - 6 miles on the treadmill, nice steady pace.  After a rough run on Saturday, I was hoping that today was going to be easier.  The muscles in my left hip were kind of sore (maybe bad sleeping position?) but otherwise I felt pretty refreshed.  Warmed up for1/2 mile at 8:00 pace, then bumped up the pace to 7:30 pace for 5 miles.  Cooled down at 8:30 pace for the last 1/2 mile.  Everything felt good - I felt like I was back in my stride today.  I guess that hard workout last week must have taken something out of me.  Planning on 1.5 with Samuel this afternoon (need to be more consistent about that).

PM - ran 1.2 miles with Samuel to the store and back to pick up a FHE treat.  Averaged 10:35/mile.

Lunch - ran outside today, no GPS, just a watch.  I felt so good today that this ended up being a not-so-good thing, as I ran faster than I realized.  5.1 miles on Lunch Run 2, beautiful day, probably low-60's and sunny, slightly windy but not bad at all.  Felt good throughout the entire run, very relaxed, very controlled.  Average pace was about 7:15/mile.  Oops - I was shooting more for 7:30-7:40.  I felt a little bit of general soreness in my shins today, but nothing localized - probably about time to get a new pair of shoes.  My Tangent 3's have around 300 miles on them, and I was told they wouldn't last as long as a regular stability shoe.

PM - 1.5 miles with Samuel, average pace of 10:35/mile.  He took off in the beginning and was running around 9:00 pace, then when I told him how fast he was running (bad move maybe?) he immediately slowed down.  Next time I won't tell him if he is running too fast . . . :) 

Lunch - 5 miles on the treadmill, followed by ab work.  A variation of planks where I did plank lifts, then side planks, then leg lifts.  Run felt good, shins are still a little bit sore, but no more than before.  Easy runs the rest of this week (I promise!).

Lunch - 6 miles on the treadmill.  I started out nice and easy for the first two miles - 8:00 pace, then sped up to 7:30 pace for 3.65 miles, and for the last bit, decided to see how I handled running at 5:00 pace, and how long I could last.  I was kind of hoping I might be able to do a 1/2 mile at that speed, but decided to put the brakes on at 0.35 miles.  It felt extremely fast - I haven't run at that speed for a long time.

After running and before I could shower and get dressed, the fire alarm in the building went off, and everyone was evacuated.  No fire, but apparently someone in that building had received a piece of mail with a white powder in it, so the fire department and hazmat crew came in to check it out.  After an hour of waiting in my shorts and singlet (thankfully it was nice out) I finally got to go back in and grab my stuff from the locker room, but no shower :(  Since I actually work in the building next door, I just got dressed and headed over there, but everyone who worked in that building had to collect their stuff and leave.  Craziness.  About 15-20 minutes before we started going back in, a FOX news chopper was hovering over the area, and I heard that they had reporters there as well.

Lunch - 5 easy miles on the treadmill, 8:00 average pace.  Wore my HR chest strap today and used the integrated Polar HRM function of the treadmill to monitor my HR during the run.  Average HR of 150, max HR of 158 (I am not counting a 1-second blip where my HR jumped to 161 once).  Run felt very good.  Over the course of the 5 miles, my HR slowly crept up from the 140's to the low-mid 150's by the end.  Very interesting.  Since I went back on my declaration yesterday from the previous day that I would not do any speedwork, I am going to pledge to myself to NOT do any more speedword before Del Sol.  Getting injured a week prior to the relay would be a very bad thing.

PM - 1.5 miles with Samuel, average pace of 10:38/mile.  He has been complaining of late of a pain in his left knee - when he points to it, the pain is just below his kneecap, towards the inside.  Couldn't find anything wrong - we will see what happens over the next few days.  After running with Sam, ran 1.1 miles with Joseph at 11:20 pace to Fry's and back so that we could pick up some alfredo sauce for the younger boys for spaghetti tonight - they really love it, and goodness knows Joey needs to get some meat on his bones . . . he did very well, in spite of worrying that he would get tired.

AM - ran 4.1 miles to a member's house to help him move a few blocks away.  I woke up with a sore back, so I started off slow and used the run to just warm up for the move.  Average pace of 7:52/mile.  Felt very good.

AM2 - ran 3.9 miles back from helping out with the move - with being nice and warmed up (and also wanting to get back home a bit quicker), I found myself naturally running faster on the way home.  Average pace of 7:17/mile, was slowly increasing the pace the entire run.  I am putting down 1 mile at MP.  This run also felt very good - felt good to stretch the legs out a little bit without going too fast.