Cool Runnings!

Lunch - 5.1 easy miles outside today.  Beautiful weather, a little breezy.  Forgot my Garmin today, so I didn't know exactly what pace I was running, but it felt pretty good and easy.  Total time for the run was 38:10, average pace (calculated afterwards) was 7:29/mile.  Legs felt nice and peppy, lungs felt good.

Lunch - 5.35 miles on the treadmill.  Warmed up for 1/2 mile at 8:30 pace, then did the rest at 8:00 pace.  Felt very easy aerobically and on the legs.  Afterwards, did planks - 1:30 facing down and 1:00 on each side.

PM - ran with the boys outside today, although it was kind of hot out.  Samuel was first, average pace of 9:41/mile for 1.5 miles.  He has a more difficult time with the heat.  Next was Joey, average pace of 10:17/mile for the 0.65 miles.  Third was Adam, not sure of the pace, but he ran about 0.15 miles.

Enjoyed celebrating Lybi's birthday (very low-key) with artichokes and chips and salsa (her two favorite foods), then she opened her presents.  She got a new set of scriptures and a set of animated Book of Mormon stories that are out of print, thus used, but in excellent condition.  We broke in the first book today with the boys for scripture reading - with all the amazing pictures in the books, they were just eating it up.

Lunch - 4.15 miles outside. I took a slightly different route today, because I was short on time, thus the shorter mileage. It was nice out, a bit blustery though. Average pace for the run was 7:16/mile, aided and abetted by my powering through the last 0.15 miles at about 6:00 pace.

PM - 1.5 miles with Samuel at 9:28 pace, just under his new smoothie pace.  Then 0.65 miles with Joseph at 10:18 pace, and 0.15 miles with Adam at 12:20 pace.

Lunch - 5.1 easy miles outside at 7:30 pace.  I wore the Garmin and was trying real hard to make sure that my pace didn't get out of control, so I was glancing at it pretty regularly.  Sometimes it is easy for me to run faster than I should, because I get excited about an upcoming race or how well an elite runner just did (did anyone else catch the Rotterdam marathon?  Two guys at 2:04:27!).  I also made the mistake last night at Webelos of running a 50-yd dash (approximately) with the boys as we were working on theirAthlete activity pin, and that kind of set my hip flexor back a little bit, although not as bad as it was before.  Not sure if I am going to be able to do Pat's Run, as we are considering driving up to Payson that weekend.

Lunch - progressive run on the treadmill, increasing my speed by 0.5 mph every 1/2 mile until I felt I could no longer maintain.  Started at 8:30 pace to warm up for the first 1/2 mile, then increased to 8:00 for the next 1/2 mile, 7:30 for the next 1/2 mile, 7:00 for the 4th 1/2 mile, then 6:40 for the 5th 1/2 mile, 6:20 for the 6th 1/2 mile, 6:00 for the 7th 1/2 mile and 5:42 for the last 1/2 mile, then finished with a cool down of 0.15 miles.  Then 1:30 of down facing planks and 1:00 on each side.

PM - 10 miles outside.  Weather was nice and cool, high today was about 68.  A little windy, and had some scattered showers while I was running.  I was originally planning on running this morning, but woke up to rain and wimped out.  Average pace of 7:35/mile, mainly due to the last mile.  Miles were as follows:

 Mile 1 - 7:46.   Felt good, got into a nice rhythm really quickly and felt like I could maintain it the entire time.

Mile 2 - 7:45.  Still feeling good.  Have a favorable crosswind.

Mile 3 - 7:49.  Forced myself to try and slow down a little bit.

Mile 4 - 7:42.  On this mile, I turned down the road to the Highland High School track and ended at the track.

Mile 5 - 7:50.  Legs were starting to feel a little tired from the workout I put them through yesterday.

Mile 6 - 7:51.  Same.

Mile 7 - 7:27.  This was my last mile on the track, and I started to increase the pace at the 1/2 mile mark, and pushed the last lap at about 1/2 marathon pace.

Mile 8 - 7:41.  Really starting to feel tiredness in my legs here, but was determined to push through it.  I wanted to work on developing the toughness I need to push through the end of St. George.

Mile 9 - 7:26.  Started to push the pace here again at about the 1/2 mile mark, where I decided I wanted to see what I would be able to do at the end of a long run where I was tired.

Mile 10 - 6:36.  On this lap, I really pushed the pace, again to see what I could do when I was tired.  Did pretty good, accelerated throughout and hit 5:42 pace towards the end.

Overall, I am happy with this run.  I didn't get in as many miles this week as I had planned, due to Lybi's sister's family being here, but that was a welcome interruption.