Slowly Getting Faster

3 on the treadmill at the hotel.  I'm not a huge fan of the treadmill but it is so much easier to talk myself into running on the boring treadmill than out in the freezing cold weather. 

night time job around the neighborhood.  I feel like I have a lot of work to do.  Maybe it's just the cold.  I hope it's just the cold. 

I managed to run it in 8:35 per mile without ever looking at my watch. I think that's decent but I'm unhappy with how I felt during the run. Two months ago 5 miles was nothing and I would have knocked it out without thinking about it.  now it seems like even this distance is farther than I am prepared for.

I'm going to push myself for consistency over the next couple of weeks and see if that makes the difference. If I can make my miles consistent maybe I can get back to my running happy place. I am willing to acknowledge, however, that my running happy place may have migrated to warmer weather and I'm just going to have to grind it out for the winter.  

5 easy around the neighborhood. Felt better this morning than it did last night. maybe the key is morning running. 

not sure how I managed this, but midway through my run I strained my upper back. The second half of the run was a struggle to move and breath at the same time. luckily, it was just a road run so not too difficult and I made it back to the car in 46 minutes. I hope I can work this out today or tomorrow is going to suck. 

I'm starting to understand 2 things. First, why people don't trust the Garmin watch; and second, that I don't like running at night. 

 Maybe I'm just getting old and lazy but it seems harder to run at night.  The same course in the morning leaves me feeling refreshed, but at night it just beats me down. 

Also, tonight after the run I looked at the elevation profile. According to the watch, with the elevation correction enabled, places that I was clearly jogging uphill are registering as downhill. That coupled with the fact that the watch doesn't always follow where you are going and it's pretty easy to see why it is only a rough guideline. Either way, I need to start running mountains again so I can get my uphill legs stronger.  

Lame, I know.  I'm trying to make the RW Runstreak thing this month so I had to get at least one mile in today. I should have gone at 5 am but didn't.  I failed to realize that not going early meant I wouldn't be able to go until after 11pm. At 11 I was beat and not up for much.  I made a loop around my immediate neighborhood and called it a night. Tomorrow is probably going to be similar with my wife's work schedule. 

Weak for me for a Saturday, I know. Pretty much the same deal as yesterday except my wife had to be in Ogden early this morning so I couldn't have gone then. After that it was pretty much over until tonight. Luckily, I made it out before 11 tonight, so I went a few more miles.  This route is great for hill training, 550 feet in 3 miles if you trust the garmin. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back to putting in some distance. 

 Had I realized I just needed another mile to hit 30 for the week I would have run another one.