Every Run is a Great Run!

Another warmer than usual morning to start our December.  Around 45-50 degrees although overcast.  Had a pretty good size group of runners although we're short on the ladies as Kim was the only one from the fairer sex.

In the middle we ran a benefit 5K that ran up/down the river trail from the base of Osborne hill. Hadn't planned on racing and didn't go all out but couldn't resist speeding up and doing some 7-7:30 MP miles. 

Did a few more cooldown miles to get to 12 for the day and 45 for the week. This is probably as high as I'll be going on the weekly miles until a month or so before Boston.

8:41/147 

Had a bit of upset stomach this morning and was enjoying sleeping so I decided to wait until just before lunch for the run.  Enjoyed an easy 7 miler out to the top of the river trail and back.  Quite relaxing actually.

8:38/143 

Got out around 11am with Kim and headed off to do some mile repeats.  The wind from the canyon was still pretty stiff so we decided to warmup 2 miles into the wind and work so that all the fast stuff was (for the most part) with a tail-wind and very slight downhill with the recovery back into the wind.

Didn't have great expectations for this workout and set a wide pace target of 6:15 to 6:45 for the mile repeats.  Not sure if it was the tailwind that made the difference but I felt better than I was expecting and the pace reflected that. The first mile almost felt too easy so maybe I should have done it a little quicker.

Goal was 3-4 mile repeats with 1/2 mile jog rests (around 4 1/2 to 5 minutes rest). I decided to split the difference and do 3 1 mile repeats with a .5 mile final for 3.5 miles total.

Paces and ave HR for each mile were 6:26/170, 6:23/180, 6:19/185, 3:03 (6:05 pace) / 185.  Max HR 191.

Who knows - maybe I still have a sub-20 non-aided 5K left in me? 

Nice and easy recovery run just before lunch.

8:37/142 

Six easy miles in the early morning with 5 or 6 20s strides toward the end, then later before lunch went to the gym for 30 min XT + core.

Six easy mile in the early morning.  Ran 2 or 3 miles with Kim and Kay.

Pretty good sized group turned out for the morning run.  Weather still pretty nice for December but I guess that will be changing after today.  Got daring and wore shorts for maybe that last time in the morning for quite a while.

8:35/146 

Out bright and early with Kim and Kay on a plenty nippy morning (20 degrees?) but luckily we had good gear and the canyon wind was mostly non-existent. 

Later to the gym for around 30 min XT + core. 

Speed work Tuesday.  Working at home so Kim and I waited until just before lunch to let it warm up a bit and melt the ice off the roads.

Ran 7 x 1/2 mile repeats with 3 min jog rests.  Schedule called for 6 to 8 and it would have been nice to get the 8 but the last 3 got tough and the end of 6 I got all those lovely nausea & GI distress signals that say I better get to a bathroom quick! Even so I'm pretty happy with the workout.

Ran the same route as the mile repeats last week that gives us just a touch of downhill and sometimes a tailwind.  Some wind today but not as strong as last week.  Also a few wet spots on the roads and shoes/socks ended up getting pretty soaked.

Splits/HR info: 3:10/164, 3:06/175, 3:04/180, 3:04/183, 3:04/184, 3:04/185, 3:01/186

Overall: 7:29/171 max HR 193 

Six easy in the early AM mostly with Kimi.  Then later to the gym for 30 min XT + core.

Pretty much a repeat of yesterday.

Nice Saturday morning with the usual gang. Cloud with light snow but not much wind and not too cold so actually a pretty nice morning for a run. Most miles in the 8-8:30 pace range. 

Seven easy miles in the early morning then later on did 30 min XT + core at the gym.

Big nasty snowstorm put the kabosh on the morning run plans. Instead Kim and I got out and shoveled snow around the neighborhood for 1 or 2 hours.  Later after lunch I was able to sneak out and get 6 miles. Felt like a slug the whole way I think I still had too much food in my gut.

Kim and I went out around 9:30 in the morning. Pretty cold around 15-20 degrees but we were dressed for it so that wasn't a problem.  What WAS a problem was the nasty road conditions. Had hoped at least some of the main roads would be clear but we couldn't seem to find any road without lost of snow/slush/ice and just generally slippery conditions. 

So any plans for doing the planned mini-speedwork session of 6-10 quarter mile repeats were out the window.  Just focused on getting a few miles and not getting injured with the slippery conditions.

Supposed to do a 5K time trial on Saturday but we'll just have to see what mother nature has in store. 

Couldn't bring myself to deal with the 10 degrees with howling wind bringing the chill factor to below zero this morning. So enjoyed sleeping in a bit instead.  

Later I did make it to the gym at work for 30 min XT + 3 miles on the dreadmill.  I was getting really bored after just 1 mile on the 'mill so I alternated fast/slow doing .10 mile strides to get to the 3 miles.

Well we woke up early and the world hadn't ended yet so we thought we'd get 1 last run in even though it was only in the 10-20 degree range with mega-nasty canyon winds bringing wind chill down to sub-zero.  Actually big thanks to Kay for giving us a good nudge to help get us up and moving on this very frigid morning.

Tried to work the running route to avoid the worst of the wind but it didn't help much since the wind decided to be about as bad as it ever is. But we plugged along at our don't-care-pace and got it done. Afterward I hung out in the extra-warm shower for extra-long. 

The canyon mega-wind-chill reign of terror continues, 20 to 30 mph wind gusts again for the 3rd day straight during the morning hours.  Even so we had a pretty good size group of runners out I think maybe a dozen runners showed up.

Headed west to have the wind at our back, at least for a while.  Luckily it wasn't near as bad in the river bottoms coming back as up on the bench so we didn't have to deal with too much wind directly in the face.

Attempted to do some faster miles in the middle, but my watch died and legs just don't want to go very fast when it's so cold so I didn't do anything to write home about. But nice to still get the miles in and chat with the good ol' boys (and Kim and Kay too!).

Nice sloppy Christmas Eve morning run in the snow. Had a pretty good group show up at 7am even with the snowy conditions. Not too cold or windy so besides some sloppy road conditions it was great to be out in the snowstorm. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! 

Santa brought Kim and I got some Sno-trax gizmos to strap onto our shoes for the days when the roads are slick. Today mother nature was kind enough to give us just the conditions so we could try them out.

Kim went out early with the gang but I slept in a bit and got out a little later. The sno-trax did the trick and made running on the snowy/icy roads much more enjoyable. I even did some mile repeats with no worries about slipping.  Not very motivated to push the pace so I just tried to keep it below 6:45.  Wimped out on mile 3 with a 6:47 but the other miles were 6:30, 6:40, and 6:40.  Half mile slow jog in between the miles. 

Woke up to another 8-10 inches of white fluffy powder snow.  Mocking the snowy roads with our yak-trax strapped onto our shoes we headed out around 9am and enjoyed a nice easy 5-miler in the winter wonderland then finished up with 30 or 40 minute of snow shoveling. 

8:59/145

Pretty chilly this morning around 10 degrees with some wind from the canyon but at least not the crazy wind like we had last week. Kim has the flu so couldn't join this morning but we had a pretty good sized group meet at the church so I had plenty of company for the long run. Ended up being a nice run, sure nice to have decent roads to run on, very few slick spots.

Easy run out in a light snow on a cool morning. But no wind so that made it kind of peaceful. Roads were a bit sketchy so I had to put on the snow tires for about half the run. Kim is still sick but seems to be improving, hopefully she'll be back to normal in another day or 2.

Well I ended up just over 2300 miles for the year. Not too bad just around 70 miles shy of last year.  But best thing is making it 2 whole years with no major injuries. Hopefully I'll be smart enough to keep that up through 2013 and beyond.