Everything You Didn't Want to Know About My Runs

Nice 8 mile run with the sunrise.  It was cold, though.  I went out without a hat and gloves.  I did a mile loop and then went inside and got gloves and a hat.  They made a big difference.  I seem to be just running 8 miles all the time now so I am getting more creative in my routes.  I did something a little different on Saturday.  I did something totally different today.

Basically, I did my 5-mile buffalo with a mile tacked on the the beginning and two at the end.  (In C, we would call this ++buffalo + 2)  I altered the way home from the buffalo to go up a little higher and then come home through Falcon Park.  I got to Falcon just past 7 miles so I decided to see if I could do a lap around Falcon (just about 1 km) in under 5 minutes.  I did it in 4:49.

When I started running again a few years ago, I was training for the Wasatch Back relay.  I didn't know much, so I was following their suggested beginner training schedule, which is based on time.  I was also using an iPod with Nike+ because it was interesting to run with music and it was helpful to have it tell me milestones as I ran.  Some of my early routes involved running to a park and then doing a few laps and coming home.  Naturally, since a Falcon lap was 1K and I had my iPod set to tell me distance in kilometers and since I was seeing how far I could go in a given amount of time, and the time intervals on the iPod were 5 minutes, I was always trying to make a lap in 5 minutes, but never could.

It was nice to not only make it in 5 minutes, but to beat it after running 7 miles with a lot of sustained up-hill. 

Details 

Did 6 x 1 mile repeats this morning.  I was kind of sick of running hills and wanted to see what I could do off the treadmill.  It was pretty cool this morning--frost on the ground and I could see my breath up until I was done.  I haven't looked at the GPS data yet, but I will update this when I do.  I do know I was trying to beat 9 minutes for each split and I did.

I warmed up for a little over ten minutes first.  Then I just kept running around the mile block in my neighborhood.  I think I was around 8:30 for the first two and then 8:45 for the third.  I drank too much water in the break for this one and I could feel it slow me down.  My legs felt like rubber for the fourth.  I can't remember the time, but it was still under 9.  I decided to try for 8 on the fifth.  I was expecting it to be more difficult and I could really slow down if I didn't push it.  It went well and I ended up somewhere around 8:10.  I thought the last one would be super hard and I relaxed a bit but still came in under 9 and it wasn't as hard as I was expecting.  It was like my body was just saying, "OK, this is how fast we run now."

It is hard to focus for 1 mile.  It is just long enough for my mind to start to wander half way through, but it was good exercise.

I finished with a 1 mile easy jog.