I Probably Should Make My Blog Public again

The most exciting part of this run was my new shoes and my new sports bra. Woo hoo!

We had a snow day today, if you can believe that. It was pretty messy. We drove back from Chicago last night into white out conditions. What normally takes two hours took three. When we finally made it home, we shoveled out the driveway. Both our schools canceled, but poor Chuck had to go in because admins had to report. Even though we had shoveled just 12 hours earlier, the driveway was covered again, mostly with blown snow.

The funny thing is that it was 40 today. There is still a lot of snow, especially in drifts, but I can see patches of grass in our lawn. I bet the snow will be melted by Friday. I don't know how much accumulation there was, but for us it's never about how much snow, but about how windy it is. I'm guessing it was about 7 inches, give or take. The boys had fun playing outside on their snow day.

Another run where my garmin died part way through and I had to guess on the distance.  I was aiming for 7 and ended up a little over.  My pace was pretty good until the garmin died (3.8 miles at about 8:40 pace).  I doubt that I went faster after the garmin died, but I don't think I was much slower.  It was windy heading east, and I felt like I headed east for most of the run :)

When I got home today I put on a few layers, then realized that it was warmer out.  So I took one layer off and ran in long pants and a long sleeved shirt.  I am never good at gauging how I should dress when it is between 40 and 50, because it always depends on the wind.  Today it wasn't too windy.  I was a tad overdressed, but it wasn't too big of a deal.

I did have a great run, though.  My garmin didn't kick in right away, so I hit the lap button after I knew I had gone a 1/2 mile.  So the first 1.5 miles were at about 8:50 pace.  Then I slowly got faster.  Next 4 mile splits were 8:31, 8:21, 7:50, 7:43.  Then I started my cool down.  Next mile was 8:49. Then I decided to hell with the cool down; I wasn't done running fast.  Did 1/2 mile at 8:17 pace, and my last mile in 7:34.

The run felt fabulous.  I love this weather. Our snowstorm from Monday is almost melted.  Crazy.

6 easy miles in the morning, ending with one hard. It was just above 40, so I had the same problem as yesterday. However, this time I was dressed fine because it was windier and cloudy. The easy miles averaged just over 9 minute pace. The fast mile was 7:45. Felt good.

This is probably the best long run I've ever had. But I do have a short memory, so I could be wrong.

I decided to do loops for this one because I do better with those, just in case I need some water or a potty break. And I needed both today. I warmed up 5.2 at 8:48 average pace. I wanted the loop to be 5, but I overshot it a bit. Then I stopped to unload some fluid and decided also to replenish.

Then I did 5 at a fast pace. My average pace for the 5 was 7:53. I'm very happy with that. Splits were 7:55, 7:57, 7:55, 7;50 and 7:48. Effort felt pretty even, though I felt relieved when the last fast mile was done.

Then I ran another 4.8 to finish out my 15 miles. I felt very slow, but my average pace wasn't terrible (9:12). However, I did get progressively slower. But that's okay because it was a nice cool down.

I think I finished 13.1 in about 1:51, which is satisfying given my minimal effort in the first and last part of the run. I still think my goal for the Champaign half (I am four weeks out) will be to come in under 1:50. I am running with a lot of friends, and my pr race was one where I left my group and ran MY race. I probably will be running someone else's race this time around, if that makes any sense. I'd just rather stay with people who are traveling to run with me.