Every Run is a Great Run!

Early AM: 5 miles on a very breezy but not as cold as usual morning. Been dealing with a stupid kinked neck again.

8:41 

Late AM: 6 miles out and back at work. I was surprised how easy the pace was feeling on the way out, but then I finally figured out when I turned around I had had a tail wind that I didn't notice. But I sure seemed to notice the head wind on the way back and ended up slowing the pace quite a bit.

8:13/156 

Nice 7 miler with Kim around 11am.  Weather a little bit unsettled with a mix of sun, clouds, light snow and a touch of breeze.  But overall warm enough for shorts and maybe 2 layers of running shirts.  

Had a nature run today, "birds and beavers" was the theme.  First we found that a beaver had dropped a tree by the river across the trail.  Then saw a huge owl, an even huger Blue Heron(??) and a fat fluffy hawk being tormented and picked on by some dinky little bird with an attitude. Fun stuff!

8:52/135 

Hard workout day. I haven't been at 100% this week dealing with achey/stiff neck and upper back. Not sure if it's virus related or if I've just have skeletal/disk issue in that area. So wasn't sure what to expect for the planned workout - 3 x 1.5 mile repeats with .5 active rest/recovery in between each one. 

Thankfully Kim had good motivation and attitude to help me get over my low motivation to do anything hard today.  Overcast and light snowy weather wasn't helping much either, but after a mile warmup jog with Kim I was feeling pretty good. We parted ways at that point and I finished my warmup with another mile slow easy running and some strides.

Did the 1.5 m repeats on the same stretch of road I've been doing most of these types of workouts lately that has net downhill and sometimes a tailwind. Not much wind at all today but I felt OK. Not super but OK and I was OK with that for today.

Wimped out a little on the last repeat but stayed within the goal pace range of 6:15-6:45. Split time/pace/aveHR info below:

1 - 9:38/6:25/172 (most the downhill is during this one)

2 - 9:45/6:30/183

3 - 9:51/6:34/186

Max HR 191

Just a nice little 7 mile recovery run. I was hoping for a bit warmer and a bit more sunny but not bad for winter.

8:15/145 

Day off work today.  Waited until after kids were off to school then Kim and I drove our problem-child-used-car (is it the car that's the problem child or is it our problem child's car?) down to the mechanic shop then we ran back home along random roads and trails on a bit of a dreary, cloudy, chilly morning. 

Feeling a little sluggish, seems like with cold, humid weather it's always hard for me to get going. But still a good run as we kept the pace nice and easy.

9:09/139

Nice early morning run with Kim and SF runner crew and a few solo miles.  Chilly and foggy/smoggy again but no wind and it seemed warmer than what weather.com said it was.  Legs seemed to have pretty good pep so I did a few MP miles and a couple HMP miles.

8:08/156