Back in the saddle?

I'm increasing my mileage now.  My husband and I were able to run together, so that was nice for a change.  He tweaked his program a bit to run with me.  :-)  The whole run felt very easy, except for dodging potholes in the dark!  It's hard, even with the headlamp.

Total time was 59:39, a 9:57 pace.  My splits were: 10:06, 9:50, 9:56, 10:07, 9:58, 9:43.  Even with adding a mile, the run didn't feel any harder than normal, so I guess that's a good sign!  I'm anxious to get back down to a 9:00 pace for my easy runs, though.  I'm being patient!

It was DARK on my run tonight (guess that's what happens when the sun goes down!).  I had the headlamp on after the first mile.  I ROCKED it tonight.  I decided to pick up the pace a bit.  It still felt fairly easy, although my body could definitely tell it was going faster.  I finished in 53:21, averaging 9:32.  Yeah!!!!  My splits were: 9:45, 9:27, 9:35, 9:39, 9:36, 8:51 pace for the last .6 mile.  The weather was so beautiful.

I talk about my running at work, and everyone there knows about it.  Soooo, about a mile or so into my run, I saw my boss on the trail (I've never seen him while running).  Well, I can't let my boss think I'm a slow runner, after all my talk at work!  So that might be a reason for the faster splits. 

Then, when I was almost home, I saw a big black dog.  Now, I am scared of most big dogs.  There is one big black dog on my street that has snapped at my husband or me several times, so I am VERY scared of big black dogs in my neighborhood.  So, I saw one between me and my house and thought, Thanks for ruining my awesome run!  But the dog started barking like crazy and running away from me!  It probably saw my little headlamp and thought I was some weird creature.  It made me laugh!  (I'll still probably be scared of that dog, though!)

Another good run on the Bridal Path, in the dark again.  Average pace was 9:40.  I picked it up a little again, but plan to take it easy for the rest of the week, so I can do my 14 miles in Flagstaff this weekend.

My splits were: 9:44, 9:36, 9:52, 9:52, 9:39, and 9:01 pace for the last .6 mile.  Total time was 54:07, an average pace of 9:40.  I ran the second half about 7 seconds slower than the first half.  I almost got hit by a car too!  Even the headlamp can't avert all disasters!

There must be something going around on the blog.  I didn't sleep well last night either!  I woke up several times and could not get back to sleep!  Hopefully tonight will be better.

Well, I have exceeded my goal of 30 miles per week so far this month.  So, now the goal is at least 35 miles this week, and increase by 10% every week until I hit 40.  Once I hit 40 miles per week, I will reassess if I want to keep increasing mileage.  This is exciting, because I have only run this kind of mileage in the late stages of marathon training (although high school cross country is probably an exception).  I am looking forward to seeing how consistent 40-mile weeks changes my fitness level (and hopefully my dress size too!).

Well, this morning I was dragging.  I ran a little faster than normal last night, waited less than 12 hours, and ran again.  I don't think my body is used to running every 12 hours.  It's funny that I can do 12 miles at a time on the weekends, but not as two separate runs during the week.

Anyway, it was COLD out this morning!  It was still really dark when we started, and after hearing all the scary stories on the blog last night, I was a little creeped out.  So I made my husband run the same route as me, even though he went ahead in front!

Total time was 56:15, average pace 10:03.  My splits were 10:19, 9:54, 10:04, 10:02, 10:08, 9:43 pace for the last .6 mile.  I haven't run that slowly in a long time.  But I'm not beating myself up over it-I'm proud of myself for running twice in 12 hours.

I hope to get up tomorrow and run early again.  BUT, I have a big morning in court tomorrow, so it will depend on how much I get done today in preparation.  Tonight we get to pack for Flagstaff!  Can everyone tell I'm excited to go??!?!

Oh goodness!  What a run!  I am very proud that I was able to run that far in Flagstaff.  We ran really slowly and felt great for the first 8 miles, despite a brutal headwind.  We stopped to refill our water at 8 miles and then continued.  I started feeling tired around 10 miles, and it went downhill quickly from there.  By 11 miles, I was hurting.  It was all I could do to turn around and start back.  The goal was 14 miles.  I really wanted to stop at 12 miles, but I decided I would run a half marathon and walk the last .8 miles.  So, I made it to 13.2 and walked.  Average pace was 11:15.  It was obviously much slower than normal, but I'm glad we made ourselves go slowly, because I don't think we would have made it the whole way if we had tried to do our normal pace.

The terrain was beautiful!  The leaves are changing, so there was color everywhere.  Running in Flagstaff always brings back a lot of memories, from high school cross country runs, to training for my first marathon, to falling down in the dark 6 weeks before my first marathon and having to skip it, etc.  I did a lot of challenging trail runs when I lived here.  Once I ran up Snowbowl Road and back down.  Fun stuff!

My body feels like it went 20 miles!