run, run, run

Cour D'Alene, ID 5:00 pm

Pace: 8:29

My first run up here in northern Idaho. I wanted to run on the path by the lake, but it is a few miles from my hotel, so I did more running to the trail than on it. I think I will drive out there in the morning.

I was talking with a guy I work with about how making your stride longer is a good way to speed up, so I worked on that tonight. I think it worked somewhat. I think if I can get to where my stride is a bit longer and it becomes comfortable and I start running that way without thinking about it, my overall speed will improve.

Coeur D'Alene, ID 7:00am

Pace: 8:35

I didn't get out as early as I had hoped this morning, so I just ran through the neighborhoods. It was a pretty good run, kept it at an easy pace. It was kind of cold, about 18, but not bad at all. I was thinking about how I was in Houston last summer in the sweltering heat. It would be nice to have been able to switch that assignmnet with this one.

The neighborhoods I ran through were pretty quiet, but got a little busier as the morning progressed. The snow is a little cumbersome. It hasn't been falling much, but they have big berms along the side of the road from the accumulation all winter. I keep thinking that if a car came at me I would have to dive on to one of those snow banks, but they are so hard and icy I would probably just slide back down into traffic and die.

I got lost too. Well, I missed a turn and ended up adding about a half-mile to my run. Which I wouldn't have minded except that it started snowing pretty hard during that last half-mile. I don't mind running in the snow if I have a hat or visor on, but with just a stocking cap I get snow in my eyes. I don't like that.

Coeur d'Alene, ID 7:00am

Pace: 8:44

This morning was kind of a fiasco. I planned on going out to the path by the lake and getting a good 10-miler in. So I drove to the parking lot and realized that I didn't have my iPod. I don't care much about the music, but I like to track my pace on the Nike+. More importantly this morning, I wouldn't know how far or how long I had been running and I needed to get to work on time. So, I turned around and went back to the hotel, got my iPod and just ran from the hotel -- a similar route to what I took on Monday.

It was snowing most of the time during the run, but it was the small stuff that doesn't get in your eyes as much.

I passed up a snow plow today. OK, it was one of those 4-wheelers plowing the sidewalk, but I passed it.

Coeur d'Alene, ID 6:00am

Pace: 9:12

It was a rough one this morning. I went up something called French Gulch. It was a very nice loop through the mountains. Hilly, but not too bad. I saw the route on the USATF site. Whoever posted it must have run it in the summer. The road was snowpacked most of the way and on one of the steep downhill stretches, I fell on my ass. I fell kind of hard this time. Now my and my arm are sore.

I also got chased by a mean dog. Turns out it was just a collie and it was locked behind a fence, but I still screamed like a girl and ran away. It was kind of like that scene in The Lion King where the warthog screams "she's gonna eat me!"

I kind of have an overly active fear of dogs since I got bit on the in Harrisburg a year or two ago. Running is hard on my ass.