Cool Runnings!

AM - did not run, slept in.

PM - ran 6.2 easy miles in the evening.  Weather was nice and cool out, but not too cold to wear shorts and a short-sleeve shirt.  Did not feel quite as good as Saturday, when I was really in a groove, but still felt good to get out there.  Total time for the run was 48:29, average pace of 7:49/mile.  Going to ice the top of my foot and the achilles to help with the inflammation in both areas. 

AM - slept in again. We need to work on getting to bed earlier so that I can run in the morning, although with my achilles the way it is, running in the afternoon/evening actually feels better right now.

PM - Ran 4.2 miles after work and before dinner. Gotta make it quick so that I can finish making dinner. Total time was 32:25, average pace of 7:43/mile. Felt good, especially towards the end - found that rhythm again. Will run a few more miles after the boys go down.

PM2 - Ran 0.46 miles with Joey, while pushing Adam in the jogging stroller.  Then put Joey in the stroller as well, and ran another 3.04 miles to make it 3.5 miles with the boys.  Total time for the 3.04 mile run was 24:45, average pace of 8:08/mile.  Started off slow, then worked my way up.

AM - got my lazy bum out of bed to go out for a run. The achilles felt good - usually it has been stiff and sore when I wake up, but not today. Still a bit stiff when I first started running, but it loosened up pretty quickly. 4.1 miles in 31:46, average pace of 7:44/mile. This was due mostly to the last mile being at near MP. Either this afternoon or tomorrow, I will do my first of two tempo runs this week - 2-3 miles at 6:30 pace.

PM - After dinner, we took the boys to the track, along with the double jogging stroller and Sam and Joey's bikes.  The idea was that I would run with Adam in the stroller and Sam riding his bike alongside me, and Lybi would run with Joey.  The older boys weren't cooperating, so we just let them do their thing on the track and kept an eye on them to make sure they stayed in sight (they did).  I warmed up 0.5 miles with Adam in the jogging stroller, then started my tempo run.  Messed up on the first 0.5 split, but pretty sure it was a titch slower than 6:30 pace.  middle mile was 6:23, and then the last 0.5 was right about 3:10, but my watch messed up and didn't stop when I pressed the button (Lybi had the Garmin).  Another 0.5 mile cooldown, nice and slow, for a total of 3 miles.  I figure pushing the jogging stroller was probably about a 20 second slowdown for me, so I was booking it pretty good on the tempo portion.  Breathing was getting kinda ragged at the end from the effort of pushing the stroller at that pace, but I felt I could have sustained it for just about another mile.  If I go with Lydiard's approach, I was probably past my LT and accumulating an oxygen debt during the tempo run.

AM - slept in, was up a bit too late last night watching Spiderman 3.  Loved the movie, intense action scenes, and it also had some amazing comparisons to our life - especially the black suit - we both saw that as symbolic of addiction.  You got to see two different scenarios - someone who struggled with the addiction of the symbiotic host, but was able to overcome it, and someone who ultimately was overcome by the addiction and was destroyed (along with it).  This is also right in line with Satan's plan.  He would lead us down the path to hell, trying to convince us that our bad choices make us feel good and make us more powerful when, in fact, they cause us to sink lower and lower.  Eventually, as we continue to sink deeper and deeper, we can be completely ovecome and lose all hope.  And, as Alma says, "thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell."  So it was with poor Eddie.  He was torn away from his addictive host, and couldn't bear the loss, and when spidey was about to destroy it, he preferred to jump back in and be destroyed himself rather than live without it.  A sobering lesson.  Anyway, back to the run.

PM  - After a long and fairly stressful day, I had what I would call a "runners high" run.  Another one of those days where everything was clicking perfectly, right from the get-go.  I'm not sure what was different, but I really got into an awesome rhythm.  Total time for the run was 46:31, average pace of 7:30/mile.  First half was in 23:37, second half in 22:54, positive split of 43 seconds.  Boy, did this run feel good!  I know this might be considered "garbage" miles because of the pace, but it was just what I needed today.  I feel like my fitness is really improving, and am looking for good things this coming year.

AM - no running.

PM - It was cold and rainy out, and was pretty late by the time I got the chance to run.  I know, you're thinking "it never rains in Phoenix", but this is two weekends in a row that it has rained now.  Not that we don't need the water, 'cuz we do.  On to the workout.  I was able to fix the treadmill so that the belt wasn't slipping, which was a good thing, because I planned on doing a tempo run today.

Warmed up nice and easy, started off at 8:30 pace for 0.5 miles, then sped up to 8:00 pace for the next 1.5 miles in anticipation of starting my tempo run.  I wanted to be nice and warmed up and have the blood pumping.  At the two mile mark, started my tempo run.  Sped up to 6:20 pace for 2.5 miles, then slowed back down to 8:30 pace for another 2.5 miles for a total of 7 miles.  The entire run was done at an incline of 1.0 on the treadmill to more closely approximate running on the road.  The tempo run felt good, I could have kept it up for at least a couple more miles, probably even up to 10K. although I am not totally sure about that.  Tomorrow's run will be nice and easy.

AM - no running, slept in.

PM - ran 1.0 mile with Samuel in 12:45, then ran approx. 0.5 miles with Joseph. Put Adam in the jogging stroller and took him for a 4 mile run to get him to sleep. 4 miles in 32:41, average of 8:10/mile. Will get in another 6 miles or so later this evening, probably on the treadmill so that Lybi can finish doing some Christmas shopping.

PM2 - Ran another 6 miles outside so that Lybi could run on the treadmill (boys were already asleep).  Started off nice and easy and slowly increased the pace throughout the run.  Total time of 47:46, average pace of 7:57/mile.