A.M. Ted is in Kansas, so ran alone. The weather was warm, 38 degrees, but it was raining. I wanted to do something entertainment-fast, so to keep the entertaining value of the workout I needed a good knee lift. Sarah took the only pair of tights that would have had a good knee lift in the rain. She cannot wear the others, they are too big on her. The others don't, even when it is not raining. I decided it was warm enough for shorts. After a 10 minute warmup, decided to do a fartlek of 1 minute on 1 minute off, the on minute around 5:20 pace, the off minute around 7:30 until I was tired. Figured it would happen after 16 on minutes. The on minutes gradually progressed from 5:20 to 5:10 pace. I did not track the off pace very thoroughly, but the average pace in the fartlek motion was around 6:00. Tracked the pace by the dots on the trail. The breathing was elevated but there was no significant muscular fatigue. That made the workout very enjoyable. I was done with 16 on minutes before I knew it. With the clothes being fully soaked the rain started to feel colder, and I wanted to get home fast. So I figured I'd do a few more. Did 4 more on minutes. The pace progressed to 5:00. Ran a brisk cool down. Total time for 10.1 was 1:02:41, avg. 6:12.38. The form felt very good - good knee lift, good feeling at the end of the hip extension and push-off phase. I even experienced minor fatigue in the abdominal muscles, which I probably do not use very much normally - they never get tired from running, they are weak unless I work them out with sit-ups and other non-running exercises, and I do not run any better when I make them strong. P.M. 1.05 with Julia in 10:57, 1.5 with Jenny and Jared running, Benjamin in the double stroller, in 13:09. Jared fell back a bit and finished in 13:25. Then put Jenny and Jared in the stroller, and let Benjamin loose. Another 2 miles in 16:14.
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