I did a 2 mile warm-up and cool-down with a 4 mile tempo run at 6:58. I'm hoping to be able to speed that up some in the next few months, but we'll see. The first mile-and-a-half were uphill into a freezing wind so they were slow, but after that I really can't think of any excuses, dang it. It felt good to push myself today. Whenever I have a speed work-out planned I try to think of ways to get out of it just before it happens - its always nice to conquer that feeling of not wanting to work hard.
My garmin was taking forever to find satellites so I took advantage of it being an easy day and left the watch at home. I love that "who cares what my time is" type of feeling. It wasn't a warm day but there was blue sky and lots of sun. My body gulped down the Vitamin D like it was chocolate milk. It was fantastic.
2 mile warm-up, 1.5 mile cool-down, 1x2x3x4x5x6x5x4x3x2x1 minutes - I'm worn out just typing that. I ran a minute easy between each interval. Times were: 6:32, 6:37, 6:55, 6:41, 6:24, 6:23, 6:39, 6:57, 6:34, 6:44, 6:50.
I definately worked harder for the first half and faded in the second half of the work-out. And then the big difference in the times can be accounted for on whether I was going uphill or downhill. I did this run out at my sister's were flat land DOES NOT exist. It's good for me. The only part of this work-out that I'm disappointed in is my last minute. I did turn up-hill to do it, but I think I forgot what I was about or how short a minute is because I never really started working and then all of a sudden it was over. It really surprised me.
When I started out today I was running agaist a wind that was rude enough to blow snow into my face. My eyes started stinging after 1 1/2 miles and I thought I was going to have to bag the work-out for the day. Maybe I was hoping that I had my excuse. But I pushed through it, and as usual, I'm glad I did. After the first 2 minute interval I turned out of the direct wind and then by the time I had to turn into the wind again it had died down or my eyes had toughened up. Who would guess that running could lead to having tougher eyes. I'll take it.
Just a nice easy run today. I felt a little tired from yesterday's effort so it was nice to just relax. My parents will be out here tomorrow so they'll be able to watch my kids on Saturday during my long run. I'm excited to be able to get a long run in again.
There is something about coming home to a baby that is crying for me after a long run that helps me to realize I'm not that tired and I'm ready to get on with life. My watch was all out of power when I started it this morning. Luckily I ran 16 miles out at my sister's just a couple weeks ago so I remembered the turn around spots. Also I got lucky on my potty spot today - I ran by a church where the Saturday cleaning was going on - I was able to sneak in in the nick of time. Sometimes life is so good.
My hips are pretty tight. I'm going to watch the BYU basketball game with my kids and get some good stretching in now.