Positive Running

Ran 9-miles around Black Swan Lake on a warm 83 degree Sunday morning that felt like 90 degrees in the Kansas City area.  This was an easy run around 8:30/mile because I have a the Leawood Labor Day 5K tomorrow.

A.M.:  Ran 2.1 miles as a warm-up before the Leawood Labor Day 5K.

On a 67 degree morning after a severe thunderstorm, ran the Leawood Labor Day 5K.  Apparently the starting line was set up 30 feet behind where it was supposed to be located.  There were a lot of fast runners at this event.  It was a nice event and I met a lot of great runners who are friends of my buddy Mike and his running dad, Mark.  Ran the 5k in 20:39, placing 3rd of 19 runners in my age group and 43rd out of 277 overall.

Mike ran a strong 20:23 and finished 5th in his age group, which was a little slow since Mike usually runs his 5K events in under 20 minutes. But Mike just finished the Park City Marathon a couple of weeks ago and has been running a lot of miles.  I was delighted with my 6:40/mile pace considering that I ran 9-miles around hilly Black Swan Lake yesterday on a hot Sunday morning.

P.M.:  Ran 8.3 miles with 7 laps around Black Swan Lake and an out and back to the lake from the in-laws house on a nice 84 degree Monday afternoon.

Ran 13.6 with Mike on a nice late afternoon with temps around 88 degrees along the Indian Creek trail in Overland Park from Founders Park to Leawood City Park and back, with a 1 mile detour over a single person forest trail.  It was a slow long distance run with Mike, who doesn't run that far very often as a weekday training run.  Mike got a little dehydrated, but I kept sharing my orange Powerade and getting water from the many park fountains we ran past.  So Mike did not dehydrate like I did last Friday.  Overall, it was a fun run for both of us.

Ran 8-miles around Black Swan Lake in Shawnee, KS on an 88 degree afternoon that felt like 90 degrees.  Still, a very nice afternoon compared to the hot ones we have had in Little Rock.  This is in part because the road is intermittantly lined with trees that give substantial shade for about half the run.  The challenge of Black Swan Lake is a 100 foot hill climb in about 0.15 miles, and the elevation of the loop ranges from 950 ft to 1065 ft above sea level.

Ran 13.4 miles:  1.4 miles on the TM at 8:00 per mile and 12 miles with Wesley out and back along the north shore of the Arkansas River Trail at an average pace of 8:00/mile.  Ran 10 of the 12 miles under 8:00/mile.  The first 7 miles were with a 100 degree heat index, then a slight breeze started to cool things down and by mile 8 it started to very lightly rain.  The rain and breeze cooled the heat index down by approximately 10 degrees. 

Ran 8.4 miles on the TM at LA Fitness.  A 1 mile warm-up followed by 7 miles at 51:05 (7:18/mile) and a 0.4 mile cool-down.