Runnin' in Mud...

7 miles in 54:20 (7:46 pace).  My body seems to fall into this pace as of late.  My last 4 runs have been within :02 seconds of this pace.  By the way, 7 miles is a new record since the injury.  I felt no fatigue, etc.  I will still stay conservative with my mileage buildup.  Next week, I will start adding a few hill repeats for strength and then some uptempo running as Dec. approaches.

It's amazing that since my running has been a positive lately (i.e. no injuries and they are going well), I find myself in a much better mood.  The injury and time off really made me appreciate it soooo much more. 

Our baby (Ethan) is also doing well.  He sleeps about 9.5 hours a night at 11 weeks.  Lately, the weather, for running, has been absolutely perfect.  I truly feel like a runner again and not some poor injured guy trying to get back into shape.  

4 miles in 30:55 (7:45 pace again).  I never checked the splits and just ran by feel.  Amazingly, my last 5 runs since the injury have been within :01 of each other.  I guess the body likes the pace.  It was dark last night when I ran and I had eaten about 1 hour before.  I thought that I was running faster than that pace.  I always feel that way at night.  I will take a planned day off tomorrow.  I feel really good right now, but don't want to get too excited.  Afterall, I am recovering from two stress fractures.  My question, how much is too much, too soon?

Dog update:  She is back to normal and is on two different antibiotics.  Perhaps, she hasn't been feeling well for several months.  We were somewhat busy (new baby) and probably didn't notice.  I did notice that she was sleeping more, but dismissed it as her getting older.  She seems spunky these days.  We have returned to regular walks, etc. 

Zero today...I sat in a meeting ALL day and then had to travel home.  They said they were catering breakfast and lunch (donuts and pizza).  I felt like a tub of lard after sitting all day and then eating all of that.  My low back is tight.  

6.1 in 47:20 (7:46 pace).  Again, within a second or two of what pace my body falls in to.  I did do one pick-up of ~100m just to see how it felt.  Since coming back from my injury, I have been trying to run on flat, soft surfaces.  Today's course at Shelby Farms had me going over soft surfaces (dirt/grss), but the terrain rolled.  I felt a twinge near my buttocks and hamstring meet (left side).  This is much lower than when I had my injury.  It feels muscular, but so did the stress fracture.  I will watch it, but really think it had to do with the undulating course and using those muscles that had not been used in a while.  Paranoid - me???

4.75 miles in 37:11 (7:50 pace).  Again, no aches or pains and I even included 4xhill repeats.  I randomly ran around Shelby Farms on grass/dirt for 3.25 miles and then did some short hill repeats (~.17).  I ran all of them at ~10-15k pace.  I wasn't fatigued, but just thought I should stop at 4.  This was my first workout w/any type of intensity or anything other than just easy running.  Things are coming along.

On the homefront, Olivia turns 5 on 11/13.  We bought her a big swingset with the swings, fort, slide, rock wall, etc.  Normally, we don't do anything this extravagant for her birthday, but the in-laws are throwing some money at the gift.  Ethan, now 3 months, will also be able to use it someday.  I guess I have to assemble this gigantic project this weekend.

4 miles (28:44-7:11 pace).  Alright, this was supposed to be a very easy run.  The temps were perfect 48F and our town was having a "festival", so there were lots of people out.  For some reason, I have always run faster when their is alot of traffic, people around.  I'm not trying to impress anyone with a faster pace - it just seems to happen.  Again, because I am recovering from the sfx, each run is just easy, but I pushed the pace a bit.  It felt good.