Freethinker ~ Freerunner

Kevin and I ran our usual Sunday easy 10.  He talked about having slacked this week and was thus not feeling his best.  He did pretty good to hang in with me the whole time though at an 8:17 pace.  I told him I've been ready to hit a higher gear since the start of last week.  I plan to gradually increase my mileage and include once weekly trail runs.  

We are running Turkey Mountain on Tuesday. 

Kevin and I had a really nice run on Turkey Mountain today.  This is the longest trail training run I think I've accomplished so far.  I should add that the hills out there are brutal.  I should also add that because Kevin took three weeks off around the holidays he has fallen a little out of shape, his own admission, and therefore we averaged a pace a little slower than I would have had I been alone.  

I'm looking forward to making my Tuesday run a regular trail running day. 

I was going to run a 45 minute tempo run this morning, but when I awoke the temperature was only 18 degrees.  I was also feeling a little bit sore from my hour long trail run yesterday.  Those two things together almost were enough to make me take a rest day today.  I compromised on a 30 minute tempo instead of a 45 minute tempo.  As is always the case, I was glad that I ultimately decided on running versus not running by the time I was nearing the end of my workout.  

I ran 8 400's today at about a 6:40 mile pace.  I ran 1 warm up mile and 1 cool down mile.  I jogged for 30 seconds between each set.

The temperature was bitterly cold this morning at 19 with a wind chill of only 7.  I wore only my Nike turtle neck and hat with ear warmers.  I really should have worn my Trail Heads ski mask.  About half way through my 55 minute run I really began to think about the wind chill chart and the dangers of frost bite.  I decided that when running sub 8 minute miles the body must be generating enough heat to counter act the standard model, hopefully.  Then I started to wonder if I did get frost bite how that might effect my scheduled dental implant surgery for Wednesday.  Would I have to delay?  Hopefully not as I've been waiting about two years to get to this point. 

I was going to run seven miles easy today, but due to the bitterly cold wind I could not make myself run any slower than about a 7:52 pace for most of the run.