Doug's Running Thingy

20 miles on the road bike (16.6 mph) while the boy and a couple teammates did their long run.

First time running Red Bug Trail in several months - 9am was a bit too late to take advantage of cool temps... ah well.  Just over 4 miles on single track rooty hilly twisty trails, plus about a half mile to and from the track.  One of my favorite runs when I'm fit - getting there little by little.  Scale finally tells me sub 160 for second day in a row.  Maybe I broke through the plateau.

Ravine trail clockwise plus north loop (5:12) - all miles sub 7:45 - hey, its something!  Wasn't light enough to hit the trail until nearly 7 - at this rate, I'm gonna have to shift to running in the neighborhood soon.

11.7 miles on the mountain bike (12.2 mph) at 6:45AM - a bit dark for the road portion of the ride, but I was well lit, and the sky was well lit by the time I hit the trail portion.  Going to have to shift my work hours back a half hour in the next few weeks to accommodate the later sunrise if I'm going to stick with cross training one day during the week.  Time doesn't change until Nov 7th this year - sheesh.

After an inspiring XC parents' meeting last evening (all the usuals plus 6-8 new faces - this is my 3rd season as booster chair), I was fired up for a good run this morning.  Planned on working the middle 3 miles of my usual 5.4 mile ravine trail/overstreet loop course at about 7:35 pace.  I hit them at 7:33, 7:32, and 7:21, and felt pretty comfortable still, so I decided to maintain through the next mile as well and ran 7:33 again - not bad.  Cruised in the last half mile slowly and was rewarded with a silly little fawn that pretty much ignored me as I eased past about 10 feet away - always fun.

The better than expected race a couple weeks ago, dropping below 160 lbs, a hint of Fall in the air, and the kids' enthusiasm for the first XC meet on Saturday are all combining to help me ease the pace down on these 4 to 5 mile runs - very encouraging.  I will start adding in a "long" run (7 or 8 miles) next week probably, but still keep the milage not much more than 25/week for a while.

Ravine plus north loop plus new trail - nice steady 8 min per mile.  Track work tomorrow after the big meet and the big game.

3 mile warmup, 1 mile warm down, and 8X200 on the track.  Went 38, 38, 36, 35 for first set, 4 minute break and then 33, 33, 32, 31 with 70 to 90 seconds between each 200.  Was thinking about sub 30 for the last one, but at 100 meters I bailed on that effort and cruised in.  Good workout.

More importantly, spent the morning running around a cross country course in Marianna shooting pics of the boychild and team during their first meet of the season.  Travis went 17:28 for a PR by 7 seconds and a 12th place finish.  It was sunny and heat index 90 for the 9AM start, and he said he felt generally cruddy, so the result is pretty encouraging for his goal of sub 16:45 by mid November.  Team got 4th, a few points behind one other small school and two big powerhouses - not bad.