Where's the Donuts?

Took Paul on one of my usual routes with a little addition to it, through Manette to Wheaton Way, to Lions Park, back to the Warren Bridge, through Evergreen Park and back across Manette Bridge. Pretty easy, though we pushed a little at times, maybe closer to 7/min. miles than we initially intended. Run was probably a bit more than 6 miles, but not by much. 48 minutes. Legs are a little sore from the weekend miles, but my hamstrings feel much, much better than they did at the beginning of the month. 

Easy (if you don't count the hills) run through Manette. The loop that goes by the YMCA this morning. Sunshine came back after a little rain yesterday, should be a good week. 'Running with the Buffaloes' has me inspired. 

I thought this would be closer to 7 miles, but I won't overestimate because I think my addition to the route wasn't as long as I planned. 50 minutes of running, in any case. Lions Park to Evergreen Park loop, with a little extra loop. I tried to go out pretty slow and stuck to that for awhile, but my pace steadily picked up until mile 5 or so. Kind of hit a little wall, probably because it was warmer than I'm used to (80, I'm a wimp) and in the evening, when I don't usually run (and needed a little more fuel). But other than calming back the pace because I felt winded the run was fine, and I think I'll make Wed. my evening run of the week on a regular basis. Very little soreness in my legs, that's been nice to not worry about like I had been earlier this month. Fitness is suffering from those two weeks off, but I'll work that back up.

Tried to keep it at a real easy pace today because I could feel last night's run when I started this morning. Did a few loops around Shore Drive, which is the flattest stretch around. I wanted to steer clear of hills (for the most part, I always have to run a few) to recover somewhat. Legs were tired at first but eventually loosened up and I was stretching my legs just a bit by the last half. I did see a nuclear submarine silently coming through the inlet under the early morning sunshine, that's not something you see on a usual morning run. Kind of cool.
 

Port Gamble Trails with Aaron. This route is a large swath of logging land, criss-crossed by trails and logging roads. So we just dove in and ran circles for awhile, hitting the main arterials to maintain a sense of where we were, and taking trails where we felt like it. Really nice morning to run, we started at an easy pace (maybe 8/min. mile) and soon sped up. Most of the trails were soft and level, and we were moving fairly well. We hit the parking lot (kind of unexpectedly, actually) a little early, so extended the run out highway 307, which is a somewhat busy road. We spent about 25 minutes out and back, which included up two fairly good hills. On the return route, when we were at about 8 miles or so, we both surged down and up a hill and maintained what I think was around a 6-6:15 pace for the last two miles. Really nice to push like that, especially when you don't intend to but feel good doing it.

 
All in all a good Saturday run, and puts me at my highest mileage in a long time with 30 this week. My legs and fitness feel great after that amount and stress load, so I'll increase that in the coming week.