Every Race is an Adventure!

Kent, Larry and I headed to the THS track again this morning. I did 6 x 1/2 mile intervals in 3:33, 3:34, 3:30, 3:29, 3:28, and 3:28. I've been much faster than this in past years, but this year my focus was intentionally on long, slow miles preparing for the ultra marathon last month so I'm not surprised nor too disappointed that I've lost some speed. The nagging injuries (which are improving) and packing some extra pounds have also slowed me down. I feel pretty good about this morning's workout. I was pretty consistent, felt stronger, and was a little faster than last week. It was a beautiful morning out running with my buddies. No complaints. The glass is definitely at least half full.

I helped Karen get loaded and off to YW Camp this morning so I missed my run with the guys and went out a little later on my own. Since traffic had begun to fill the roads, I decided to run over to the THS track to run. I decided on a warm mile to get there, a 3 mile tempo run, then a one mile cool down to get back home.

I was a little surprised at how much warmer it felt to run at 8:00am instead of our normal 5:45am. It was only about 70 degrees, but it was warm enough that I noticed it the whole time and was soaking wet with sweat dripping from my hat when I finished.

I shared the track with a couple of other older runners and with a couple of dozen girls from the THS soccer team. Kevin's daughters are on the team. I saw and said 'Hi' to Lizzy, but I never located Katie, but I was pretty hot and tired so I could have missed her. Those THS soccer girls train hard. It's not surprising they were state champs last year. For one drill they were doing they split into two groups. One group would sprint for half a lap. When they finished, the other group would start. As soon as the second group reached the first group, the first group would take off and run the second half of the lap. As soon as they completed that half lap, the second group would take off again. So each group would run half a lap then rest for as long as it took the other group to run half a lap. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

I just ran my 3 mile tempo run. I stayed out of their way, which meant running in lane 4 (and a little farther) instead of lane 1 now and then, but it was all good. I wanted to stay under 8:00/mi and my mile splits were 7:40, 8:00, and 7:47. I ran a cool down lap then an easy pace home. Not a spectacular run, but it was enjoyable and it's another run done.

Kent and I ran the water tank hills. Kent said Larry's hamstring flared up again on yesterday's run. I don't now where Wayne's been, I think he's been working out of town and getting home late. We're never sure when Kevin is going to show up.

I didn't have much zip in my legs up the hill today. I did run considerably longer up the hill than Kent did...not farther, it just took me considerably longer. About half way up it started raining on us and it rained much of the way back down. The mud quickly began sticking to our shoes. We got pretty wet, but by the time we got back down to the pavement the rain had stopped. In fact it didn't appear that it had even rained down there.

Another run done.

Typical Thursday run.

Spent the night at YW Camp at MIA Shalom to help take down camp in the morning. I missed my long run but the rewards were well worth the cost.