Seeking a better country...

7 am  Usual run to Farmington, but I came home a long way, including hills up to Firebreak Road.

6 am  Tempo Tuesday.  2 weeks ago the whole thing was too much, so this time I drove to the trailhead early, and did a truncated warmup, approximately one mile.  Jasmine, Tara, Andy and Shantell arrived, and we ran another 1/2 mile or so before picking things up.  The first 2 miles were 6:45 pace.  At the turnaround, Jasmine wanted to go much faster.  The back 2 miles were 12:28, so pretty quick.  We all regrouped and loped in easy to the starting point.  1 more mile to cool down.  I felt great all day.  

Interval sprints doing door hangers.

8:30 pm  Jack came in the stroller.  He used to be much smaller.  I guess some of the food is finding its way into his mouth, although from the looks of the floor after meal time, that is hard to believe.  Tonight he counted to 10, sang songs, shouted hello, and at intervals, sat quietly.  He's quite a little running buddy.  Also, he shares my affinity for grape powerade.

7:30 am  This time Anna came on the usual route, including a stop at Dicks for her donut.  She was less pokey and slow than last week.  We've been working them pretty hard helping with door hangers for Tami's campaign, so I guess from that experiment one could conclude that exercise pays off.  

When I opened the garage to wheel her bike out, a surprising thing happened; cool air rushed in.  This was the most pleasant temperature run I've had in at least a month. 

7 am.  Another non-planned, solo long run on Saturday morning.  I'm tricking myself into not getting ready for a marathon.  If I don't make a big deal out of the long runs, then getting ready for the marathon isn't happening, right?  I've been fond of saying there's no point in running over 12 miles unless you are getting ready for a marathon.  Well, 3 out of the past 4 weeks I've been way over the threshold, so I guess it's on.

 I took pavement to Farmington pond, with pauses at Smoot and the Farmington pool for drinks.  For reasons unknown, the bathrooms and fountains aren't on at a public building in South Farmington and at the pond, so I was pretty thirsty for the third section of the run, from the pond to Freedom Hills via BST.  Once I got down the switchbacks, I completely soaked in the firehose sprinklers, and got enough drink to get home.  Miles 13 and 14 were quicker, 7:10 and 6:45.  I should have done more tempo, but without better planning, it's tough.  I was happy to see that pace on flat after a very minimally fueled 1:45 minutes of running.  

After the run my back is very sore, lower left side, with numbness in the leg, and difficulty walking.  Picking up Jack is a misadventure.  This is residual from the tempo tuesday; I'm not sure what to do about it.  It doesn't pain me much while running, but afterward, things definitely aren't right.  I'll get into the chiropractor a couple times this week and try to sort it out.   One night last week I crawled to bed, rather than walk, it was bothering me so much.