The Next Step

Cold and very windy today. It was an easy 8 miles but I ran about 3 miles straight into the wind. It felt like I was standing still. This was a big change from my run on Saturday in shorts. Glad to get in the run on a really raw day. I will take tomorrow off for Christmas then get back into my normal schedule.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

8 miles, 65:07

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. My family certainly did. It makes me realize how blessed I truly am.

Today was an absolute great day to run. It was 42 degrees, sunny and no wind. This is one of those days that I feel like I am smiling the whole way through the run. I just chugged along and enjoyed being outside in the beautiful surroundings. I did notice a ache in my thigh the last couple of miles but it was nothing too bad. Hopefully, it is just a tight muscle or something.

10 miles, 1:19:50

One day can sure make a big difference in Indiana. Yesterday's weather was great today it was snowy, cold and the wind was back.

I did a 4 mile tempo run today. After looking back at my training over the last 6 months the tempo runs is an area that I need to work on. Today I wanted to run the tempo around 6:45 pace. After a warmup I started the tempo effort. My legs felt heavy and didn't want to respond but the pace was good and I ended up running the first mile in 6:37 (this mile was downwind). I turned around on my route so the next 3 miles were into the wind. I was starting to feel better and the 2nd mile went much easier in 6:51 so I slowed down more than I wanted to. Mile 3 went good in 6:44 petty much on pace and I started feeling the effort on the 4th mile but held it together good to finish off the last mile in 6:42. I felt really good with the run. This is probably one of my best tempo runs ever. I just haven't been doing many so it is hard to compare since it was so long ago. I will use this run as a baseline and see how it goes over the next few weeks.

8 miles, 59:34

4 mile tempo

1 - 6:37

2 - 6:51

3 - 6:44

4 - 6:42

After yesterday's tempo run I took my daughter's ice staking for 2 hours. As I started my run today I could tell that I used a few muscles ice skating that I don't running. I was a little sore and stiff but after a few miles I felt better. Only other issue was that it was 38 and raining. Not my favorite running weather. Anyway the run went off with no problems.

8 miles, 63:54

Long run today. It was 32 light wind. Just took it easy the whole way today and felt good. I took water with me today and ended up having to stop twice in the woods. I guess I am not sweating as much in the cold.

This turned out to be a pretty good week. I ended up with 48 miles on only 5 days of running since I took Christmas day off. I am looking forward to the New Year to see if I can keep up and even increase my current level.

1:54:10, 8:09 pace