Psalm 91:1 NKJV He who dwells in the secret place

Today I ran 2 miles with my wife at a 12 minute pace.  Very enjoyable but cold at 10 degrees.  My wife really is showing a lot of determination to keep going even in the cold weather.  

Very cool this morning only 3 degrees so of course I dressed in a couple layers. Very uneventful run. Roads were slick and covered so I didn't push anything. I couldn't sleep last night probably, because I had to go back to work for the first day from my 12 day vacation. I probably only got two hours of sleep. The run was harder than it should have been on a hilly route. I also ate too much food yesterday and it bothered me all night. I've consumed a lot of food over the holiday, and have gotten away from eating a strict diet each day. But that's what the holidays are for to have fun with your family and eat wonderful foods. There's more things to life than focusing on running, and I like to keep it that way.

Totals for this morning 8.5 miles in an overall 6:54 pace in 59:03 minutes.

Lunch:

Ran 4.6 miles on the Treadmill at home. Ran the first two barely under 7 minute miles ran the next mile at 6:30 and the last mile 5.56. I watched ESPN and all the disappointing news about how the bowl games were boring to watch because of the one-sided scores.

An understanding note. I got a call from our local newspaper, because they wanted to do a story on trying to stay fit for the new year. The writer wanted to emphasis the story on running and training for marathon's and shorter races, and they wanted my advice and opinion on how to train, and what goals to set. I mentioned that the best training advice I got was from "fast.runningblog.com", that we have an excellent list of runner's who give advice to the Novice and Advanced runner. This is going to come out in the January 12th's newspaper. I'm hoping our web site name is advertised through this article.

This morning was a cold one. I started running at 1 degrees with the wind chill it made it below zero. I had my Underarmour cold gear cap, tights on and the only thing you could see on my face was my eyebrows and eyelashes. I had a tech long sleeve shirt and my North Face wind stopper light jacket on. I also finally got some mittens for running. I stayed warm in the run except my thumbs got cold.

I wanted to run a faster run today, but I still have a stuffy nose. Breathing with the stuffy nose made it difficult to try to run faster. My splits were (7:23, 6:49, 6:38, 6:41,6:31,6:28, 6:24, 5:59) 8.3 miles at an overall 6:38 pace in 55:13. When I got home from the run my wife was amazed and concerned, because I had icicles on my eyelashes and eyebrows. I had to keep wiping my eyes because they wanted to shut because of the ice build-up around the eyes.

I feel I'm not getting enough speed work to prepare for current races and the outside weather is not helping. I think if it gets colder I might take one day in the morning and run a tempo run on the treadmill just to get some speed in. The roads are to iced over to get any speed work in. The tracks are all covered to do any track work, and there is no indoor track here to run on. I'm getting a good aerobic base which is good, but I feel you need at least one day of speed integrated in a workout.

Lunch hour

Ran 6.5 miles on the home treadmill in 41 minutes raising and lowering the grade. I did about 30 - 40 seconds at a 15% grade towards the end of the run (that's my treadmill's highest setting). Then I did a .2 cool down but realized I needed to get going or I would have cooled down a little longer.

Evening  

Ran 3.2 miles with my wife and sister-in-law at an overall 11:47 pace in the pitch black night with the wind howling.  Very good run my wife looked and felt strong.  Her 4th day in a row running after having a headache all day.

Then I ran .56 at an 18:17 pace with my three year old son Vance right after I ran with my wife. and sister-in-law.

Got up late today so I had to run on the Treadmill at home. It would have took me too long to get ready to run outside. The only apparel for the treadmill is running shorts. No shirt because it gets too hot even in the basement.

I ran 5.7 miles at a 7 minute average. This is all I could run, because I ran out of time. I was a little sore today I think because of the fast uphill running yesterday. I feel I need to get better running uphill faster. I have a good aerobic balance running uphill, but when it comes to speed and pushing it I'm weak in that area.

I will run outside on my lunch hour. I don't have to go home on my lunch hour today.

Lunch

Today outside was amazing it was 41 degrees. Everything was melting. The only problem is we had a wind advisory all day till tomorrow morning. The wind was blowing at 38mph and gusts up to 55mph, and the wind was continuous through the whole run. I ran 8.3 at an overall 6:52 pace in 57:05 minutes. The first 4.3 miles were in the headwind and it was hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be (Splits: 7:29, 7:32, 6:45, 6:54). The next 4 miles were in a tailwind and I just relax not pushing anything (splits 6:39, 6:31, 6:23, 6:39). I felt kind of fatigued before the run. I think tomorrow I'm not going to do a long run but take it easy.  Because I have to work probably to after midnight putting security patches on our  Solaris 10 systems.

This is probably the craziest run I've ever done. I had to install some security patches at
work on Friday night at 9pm and it took us till 1:15am to finish. I drove home and thought
that if I ran on the treadmill now then I would be able to sleep-in and not have to run in the morning on limited sleep (I don't like running in the afternoon on Saturday's to take away time from my family). Well I ran 11.4 miles on the treadmill in 1:15. I probably will run again today with my wife.

I would have ran to work and ran home except we had 40 to 60mph continuous wind, and raining raining raining real hard. This is no joke 40 to 60mph incredible. You could hear the wind blow inside my office.

 Afternoon:

What an afternoon run with my wife.  We drove two miles out in two cars and parked the one and drove back home and was going to run to the parked car at Lowes.  We did this so my wife could run in a tailwind vs a 25mph headwind.  Well needless to say the wind changed directions, and it started snowing. Most of the two miles was in a headwind.  The wind was circling around blowing from SW like a crosswind.  The run was a hard run and you couldn't see very good because of the heavy snow coming down.  Once we got to the car it was locked so we headed back home, and I took my wife on a shortcut back to the house.  It was a muddy trail but it took off a half mile. 

We both just laughed about the run.  What started out to be an easy run for my wife was probably the coldest, very windy, very snowy run that she has ever done, and the hardest too.  I ran ahead about .5 to get to the truck to get there faster because my wife was getting cold.  I ranged between 6:00 - 5:40 for .5.  What a funny experience and I'm glad we could do it together.

This morning I did my standard Satterfield Hill loop 10.5 miles at an overall 6:53 pace in 1:12. I was very tired today. I stayed up late Friday night working till 1:15am at work, then came home and ran on the Treadmill till 3am. I slept the next morning till about 9:30am I just couldn't sleep any longer. Saturday Night my wife and I went to Chili's with my two brothers, because it was one of my brother's wife's birthday. We left Chili's after 10:30pm and then went and played laser tag till midnight which was a blast. We got home around 12:30am and went to bed at 1am.

Sunday, I did take about a 2 hour nap, and Sunday night I was in bed before 10pm and slept till almost 6:30 this morning. I think the weekend and work just zapped all the energy out of me today. The run wasn't bad I really felt tired before and after the run, but not during the run. My last five splits were 6:20, 6:19, 6:13, 6:14 and the last mile at 6:38.

I'll try to run on my lunch hour at home today.

Lunch:

Home treadmill today and I watched NFL's greatest playoff games between Broncos vs Browns.  I'm a big football junkie, and know about every statistic, and every player there is .  I love watching football and playing for fun now.  In school I played football rather than going out for track, because I didn't have a interest in running then.  Anytime there's a football related program on I will watch it, a good break from my computer interests. 

I got home late on my lunch hour and didn't have as much time as usual.  I picked the pace up in the beginning running the first mile in 6:45, and the next in 6:20 and the next in 6:00.  Followed that up with a 5:42, and the last mile around 6:45.  5.3 miles in 34:06.  Good run and it felt a little difficult running faster, because I really haven't done a lot of that lately.

Easy run on the new snow cover from last night. I ran 9.02 miles at an overall 6:55 pace in 1:02. Uneventful run other than someone flipped me off, even though I wasn't even close to the road. I think he was jealous, because I could run and he probably can't (who knows why people have childish attitudes at times). Swearing or using your fingers for inappropriate behavior is something I don't tolerate and don't like and was not raised to be like that. Oh well, I'll I did was shake my head at the guy.

The run wasn't bad, but I was tired because I stayed up a little later working on my brother's computer. He was upset because it wouldn't turn on. The problem was the power supply died so I told him to go buy one, and I ended up putting it in his system for him and it started up fine. But he did tell me that his "cmos" battery was died, so he'll have to buy one of them today or the settings on reboot will be lost.

Up to this point, "before my brother's call", I was watching LSU beat Ohio State and that excited me.

Lunch: 

Ran 5.6 miles on the Home Treadmill in exactly 38 minutes.   Did .4 at a 5:30 pace and the last .2 felt really hard.  The heat popped on down in the basement when I was running and this really made me hot and sweat like I was being dumped on by a gatorade water cooler.

It's seems lately that anything below a 6 minute mile pace I'm really struggling at not sure why, but it has me concerned.  I'm still trying to stick with a lot of aerobic miles though. 

Temperature was 30 degrees with a 20mph wind this morning with new snow cover how exciting. I actually got 8 hours of sleep last night which was great, and it felt good for the body.

Nothing really exciting happened on this run this morning. Running in the wind at some areas in the route was hard, but nothing that made me struggle. I ran 9.10 miles in 6:50 pace in 1:02 miles.

Lunch:

Ran 5.22 miles on the home treadmill in 36:00. I watched the NFL Playoffs greatest comeback game when Buffalo came back from a 35 to 3 deficit to beat the Houston Oilers. I remember watching that game. I also listened to ESPN talking about Tony Romo's vacation with Jessica Simpson in Mexico. I tell you he better be focused this Sunday, because he's got me worried.

I kind of fell off the treadmill at 5.22 miles so I decided to stop, which it was time to go back to work anyways. I'm okay though... I think my pride is hurt more than anything. Good thing it was at home not at the gym.

Today it was 27 degrees but the wind (30mph) and snow was nasty and made it a really tough run. I ran 13.1 miles at an overall 6:46 pace in 1:28. The first 2.5 miles I ran in a headwind that was cold and I had to cover my whole face. I hate when the wind blows and it kicks the snow right in your face. The next 5.5 miles I ran in a crosswind and it wasn't bad at all. The last 5 miles was in the headwind again, and I had to cover my whole face. I wanted to make myself work so I pushed the pace in the wind, because that's what competitor's do. I felt it was a good effort averaging between 6:30 to 6:45 pace. I was surprised that my overall pace was pretty decent because I really didn't feel like pushing the pace today.

I'll probably only run 3 miles on the home treadmill at lunch today at a slower pace to get some more aerobic work, and with my wife tonight if she wants to run.

Lunch:

Okay I couldn't restrain myself I ran 5 miles rather than 3 miles. When I went home for lunch my wife said, "there's no way you will just run three miles". I laughed at her thinking she doesn't know me, but she does more than I know myself. Wife's have this penetration into are brains and know our thoughts before they even come out. Guys were just all in trouble.

I did the last .8 of the mile in 5:58 . I mainly stayed around a 6:55 pace. I need to stop trying to always be in a hurry on my runs and probably need to focus on more slower aerobic runs. To give you my daily Treadmill TV watching: I watched ESPN and the road runner cartoon.

Evening:

Ran 3.1 Miles with my wife on a windy route for over half of the run.  She did very well at around a 12 minute pace overall for 37 minutes.  We didn't have a plan on how far we just made the route up as we went.  I just went along with her and she decided how far she wanted to run.  Running in conditions like this will only make her stronger, because on calm days it should feel easier.

Then ran 0.36 with my girls, our son only ran a little bit but the train scared him and he wanted to go back home, and it was his idea to run after my wife and I got done.  Oh well, there's always next time. 

Today I decide to do my long run, because I had the time to do so this morning. I ran 19.5 miles at an overall 6:54 pace in 2:15. The wind was blowing from southwest at about 19mph, and most of the run I headed in that direction so that wasn't exactly fun. Although, the temperature was 29 degrees so it wasn't cold at all. I was just planning for a good smooth aerobic ran and it felt good. I did feel tired the first 4 miles until my legs finally woke up. I think it was the 21 miles yesterday that probably was a little factor.

I took a energy gel at mile 10 because I was hungry and that felt good and tasted good. I didn't drink water or take anything else with me just one gel. I basically ran all over the city to tell you all the streets would be difficult. On the last mile, (well actually already .2 in the last mile) I decided to pick up the pace and see how that felt after the 18 previous miles. I ran between 5:35 to 6:05 and ended at a 6:00 pace for that mile. That felt good to get at least one faster mile in. My goal though was just to be on my feet for over two hours, and I accomplished that.

The last three days I've averaged 8 hours of sleep time, I'm so proud of myself and my wife is too.

Evening ran 2.7 miles with my wife.  I ran just a tad longer than her, because I did a couple 100m strides.  The wind was blowing but not too bad.  Then we went to Sizzler by ourselves, because our kids are staying at their friends houses tonight.  It was nice just me and her, every couple needs to do this once in a while without the kids.  I really enjoyed being with her tonight.

This morning we were woke up at 4:55am from where our son was spending the night. He didn't want to close his eyes, because he wanted mommy and daddy to pick him up and wanted to play. We had to drive 13 miles to Inkom (which is a small town outside Pocatello) to pick him up. We got home at 5:40 and slept till 9:40, then I decided to get up to run even though I felt like I needed 10 more hours of sleep.

After taking almost a hour to get ready I ran 8.1 miles at an overall 6:34 pace in 53:14 minutes. It took me about three miles to warm up I was a little sore from the long run yesterday. Splits for mile 3 on were 6:39, 6:37, 6:33. At mile 6 I decided to do a mile fartlek and it felt good and easy at a 5:51 pace. The last two miles I still wanted to run fast, but at a marathon pace to get some of those in 6:13, 6:09.

Good run overall and I felt a could have ran the fartlek for 4 or 5 miles or even more at the above pace.

Evening ran .3 with my son he was so energized today.  Then we played basketball with his indoor basketball hoop in his bedroom.

I mentioned that I was going to be in the Family Living Newspaper on January 12th and so was our fastrunningblog.com website URL was mentioned. I praised all the great training and advice and accomplishments have come from this site and fellow friends on this site.

Let the word spread about this great site.

 Evening:

Very disappointed that my Cowboys lost, but they did beat themselves with dropped passes and penalties.  They gave the game to the Giants and they can't make any excuses.  I'll they need to look at is their mistakes and missed opportunities. 

You could use running as an analogy for how the Cowboys played,  as a runner you might make a mistake and start out too fast in a race, or you might not hydrate as well, or you didn't push hard enough.  In your training you may not have prepared yourself for the course your going to race in.  When you make these mistakes the race usually will not go your way, but if you stick to the plan with no mistakes you'll usually come out ahead.  The Cowboys didn't do any of this and deserved to lose.

Still in a depression after my Dallas Cowboys lost I got up and ran this morning, after not getting much sleep because I kept thinking about the game and what they could have done different to win.

Being a ex-football player I really get into my team and it hurts when they lost, but life goes on and there's more important things like God, Family and Running. My wife and kids watched the whole game with me and that was special and fun. My wife is great she's not really into football, but she supports me like I support her.

This morning I ran 9.5 miles on a new snowfall at a 6:43 pace in 1:04. I was surprised at my pace, but I was thinking so much about yesterday's game that I really didn't pay attention to my

pace. I did my Olympus hill loop run:

Warmed up the first three miles not really thinking about my pace.

Mile 4: 6:52 mostly uphill and flat and in heavy snow pack. I had to be careful because this area has heavy traffic.

Mile 5: 6:17 Completely downhill ,didn't want to push too hard because it was a little slick.

Mile 6: 6:26 flat some uphill, again very slick so I had to pick my spots to get some good speed in.

Mile 7: 6:18 flat mainly some uphill and downhill, and of course still being careful, but I wasn't careful enough at the end of this run.

Mile 8: 6:33 flat and running on heavy packed snow

Mile 9 6:32 slowing down to end the run on again flat portion of the course.

At the end of my run I turned around near a townhouse parking lot and I did a Sasha, I fell on my hip on some ice and now have a nice big red cherry bruise on the side of my hip. It hurts a little, and my ankle is a little sore, because it got twisted in the fall. I took some Tylenol, hopefully that will help. I will test my hip out on my lunch run.

Lunch:

Hip and ankle feel fine after fall this morning hopefully I'm like Terrell Owens and can become a fast healer.  Ran 5.23 miles at an average 6:30 pace overall on the home Treadmill.  Ran the last mile in 5:45  and over 3 minutes of the last mile at a 5:30 pace.  I watched the game highlights of the games yesterday, and Terrell Owens  crying at the podium.  I have to admit he did become a better team player this year.

I believe to get more anaerobic I need to do more pace miles in 5:30 pace to increase my V02max.  What's the old saying "to get faster you have to run faster" even if its on the treadmill.

Today was 20 degrees with the wind blowing between 27 to 43 mph making the temperature with the wind chill below 10 degrees. The wind was blowing from the Southwest so I thought for the first part I would head into it. This was very hard it would also push me to the side of the road at a stand still. I had my full Underarmour face mask on where I looked like batman or something. My pace stayed in the 7 minute mile range which I really had to battle for. Then after mile 3 I decided to go up Satterfield hill which would give me a tailwind uphill (this is about a 2 hill uphill where the grade gets steeper as you go). After I accomplished the hill I turned West where I would head almost directly into the wind again from mile 7 to mile 9. The wind was blowing directly at me and on the side (south side) The first two miles was downhill, but it didn't matter the wind was so tough it would just knock me and snow was blowing in my eyes where at points in the run I would keep my head down.
I was in survive mode to make it back home. After the two mile down hill I turned Southwest and of course full force into the wind from miles 9 to 12. Very hard to keep a decent pace but I was trying to push it a bit with the icy surface underneath me. I was just trying to get home to get out of this wind.

My Ankle is a little sore not sure from the fall yesterday, or how my stride was awkward being pushed by the wind would mess up my stride and I would kick my ankle. I won't run the rest of the day unless I run with my wife, but the ankle really is nothing to worry about.

Second hilly run in a row, will probably run something different tomorrow.

Overall 12.2 miles at an overall 6:58 pace in 1:25.

Evening

Went to Gold's Gym tonight with my wife for some strength training on the legs. I'm a firm believe this improves your running performance. With high reps. at a lower weights on the hamstrings, quads, and calves. Also I want to try to strengthen my wife's knee and I believe the weights will help.

I also put on my FSB/St George running shirt to show-off the web site and maybe make more connections for the site.

Today's temperature was 3 degrees when I started running with a 10mph wind from SW. With the wind chill it made the temperature below zero. I started out a little faster on my warm-up miles, because I wanted to see if I could do a two mile tempo in this cold weather. I ran each warm-up mile faster than the previous 7:06, 6:55, 6:36, and I was getting icicles on my mustache and eyelids.

I started the tempo and it was directly into the wind at about 7 -10 mph. I kept wiping my eyelids because they would want to shut because of the frost buildup. My mustache was frosted over completely. The eyes just kept bothering me, about every 100m's I would have to wipe them to keep them from shutting. Anyway, the faster I ran the colder it was on my eyes, but I felt good and finished the first mile at 5:49 pace, I then decided its too cold to do anymore tempo miles in this weather, but .25 into the next mile I thought come on you wimp you can fight through another tempo mile. The next mile I would have to make up for the lost pace, and wiping my eyes was becoming real annoying. I finished the mile at 5:56, then I did the next mile at 6:04. I think the tempo would have been fine if I wasn't running into the wind causing my eyelids to frost over. Last mile splits to finish were 6:16, 6:24,6:30, once I slowed down a bit my eyes were not has bad.

I ran 10.2 miles at an overall 6:25 pace in 1:05.

I mentioned my ankle was sore, it's not my ankle its my lower calf muscle right above the Achilles tendon. My calf was getting really sore the last few miles like yesterday. My fall on Monday must have done something. The pain seemed to be located at the muscular tendinous junction.

I will do a slower run on the Treadmill today at lunch to see how it feels between a 7:45 to 7:30 pace.

 Lunch:
No run I decided to let my lower calf rest because of the pain I'm experiencing.  Besides my father came over for lunch so it was meant to be not to run, or I would have at least tempted to do so even though my wife kept telling me to rest it.

I might just stuck to running once a day and see if the pain goes away.  I know the pain started from my fall on Monday.  You have to love the ice.
 

Today I ran in my new Mizuno Precision 8 shoes and I like them. They feel like a good supportive training shoe. My lower right calf is still bothering me like yesterday, but I was able to get through the run. I ran 9.22 miles at an overall 6:49 pace in 1:03 in 10 degree weather, which felt fine because there was only a little bit of wind. I just took the run easy, other than I struggled on mile 3 it felt like I was carry weights around my ankles, but after that mile I seemed fine.

Not sure yet if I will run on my Lunch hour. I'll see how my calf feels. The streets where quite icy but I was careful not to fall. Tonight after work the wife and I are going to Gold's Gym to do strength training on the legs.

Lunch:

I ran on my lunch hour today even though earlier I didn't think I would. The calf still had a nagging pain during the run but it didn't get worst. I ran 4.8 miles at an overall 6:50 pace. The last half mile I ran at a 5:30 pace and it felt easy.

I ran in my new Asics Bandito shoes to test them out and they seem to work great with good support. I'm hoping these will replace my Asics Ohana Racers which are my marathon shoes. I can't believe they discontinued these shoes, because they were the best marathon shoe I've had. I will need to test the Asics Bandito's in a long run if I feel like they can be my marathon shoe. I will continue to ice my calf and hope it will self-heal. If you trust in GOD all things are possible.

Ran an easy aerobic long run this morning in a light snowfall. The temperature was 15 degrees when I started with no wind. I ran 17.2 miles in an 6:56 overall pace. The run was uneventful, and I only tried to fall once. The course was hilly but nothing extreme, no long hills at all. My calf still had some soreness, but not as much. It feels better after the run where I really don't experience as much pain as I did yesterday.  I took my foam roller out last night and did a deep massage or roll on the calf and that really seemed to help. But will see as the day goes and when I wake up tomorrow.

I ran the last three miles faster to get home and to get to work (6:48, 6:12, 6:40). I have to work late tonight to put some hardware in two of our Sun servers so I don't know when I'll feel like running tomorrow. I probably won't be done until after midnight.

Last night well actually this morning I got home from work at 2am and got to bed by almost 3am, because of issues with installing our Sun Gigaswift Quad network cards into our Sun Servers. Not going into details (this is not a blog about computers, and I'm tired of looking at them... oops I'm on one right now) everything installed fine it just took longer than we thought, because of some other issues not related to the install of the network cards.

After about six hours of sleep I go out the door for a run at 9:30am. The weather was 16 degrees with a 14mph wind blowing South. I originally was going to do 8 miles, because I was tired, and a little sore from the strength training and the 17 mile run the day before. Well, everything felt really good and I started out at a faster warm-up pace than I thought I would (7:06, 6:46, 6:36, 6:30,6:26,6:36,6:28,) pretty much at this point I felt really good around a 6:30 pace. The next mile I decided to do a fartlek and it was headed right into the 14 mph wind. The first half of the mile I was running between a 5:27 -5:35 pace and felt good, but the last half the wind gusts started to pick up and it was very hard and I ended the mile at 5:41. I gave a strong effort into the wind but it felt real hard. The last two miles I did a cool-down at (6:46, 6:38). It felt good to get one LT mile in. I think with the weather better maybe I can do a tempo next week and try to stay at a 5:50 pace for the tempo miles.

Totals today:
1:09 time.

6:34 overall pace

10.56 miles

9:05 miles
6:31 overall pace
59:08 time

Ran in a heavy snowfall this morning, but the funny thing is it didn't really effect my speed. Although I did fall flat on my face sliding all over on a downhill section (the only downhill section that was only 100m's... go figure :-)). I decided to do a progressive run the last three miles.

Mile 7 (6:28) really easy like I really wasn't putting any effort.

Mile 8 (6:07) felt easy going on a flat straightway road.

Mile 9 (5:48) felt pretty good... the last .2 I had to work for. I wanted the whole mile to feel easy. This is something I need to work on getting a string of 5 tempo miles in the 5 minute something range again.I did start to slip on the road a little bit the last two miles because of the snow so that would make the effort harder.

I did this run before Church which I usually take Sunday's off, but I'm off tomorrow and I wanted to take a rest day tomorrow.

After Church:

I ran 9.5 miles on the treadmill while watching the Chargers lose to the Patriots. I averaged just below a 7 minute pace. At least watching the game kept my mind off the treadmill boredom. I was really hoping the Chargers would win oh well. I was hungry after the 18 miles because all I ate up to this put was a small bowl of oatmeal. I grabbed an orange and ate it because we were going out later so I didn't wan to eat anything heavy.

After running I took my family out to a Movie and then we went out to eat a Chinese buffet.

Good day over 18 miles.

Did some running just a bit in the Mall parking lot.

This morning was an interesting weather day. It was -10 below zero when I wake up to run. I kept debating if I wanted to run outside. My wife was a little concerned, but as I kept thinking about running outside and looking at the weather web site and trying to find my tights, the time had past so fast that my only choice was to run downstairs on the treadmill. It would have taken me too long now to get my winter gear on and head outside to run.

I ran 7.3 miles around a 6:55 pace. It was very hot downstairs so tonight I'm looking for a fan to place by the treadmill.

Lunch:

Ran downstairs on the home Treadmill on my lunch hour. My daughters were downstairs watching the Mary Kay and Ashley movie Switching Goals. They were both sick, and stayed home from school so I ran down there and watched the show too. I did a progressive run and started out at a 6:30 pace because I didn't have a lot of time on my lunch hour. (4.3 miles).

Mile 2: 6:09 Didn't feel that hard and the show was good.

Mile 3: 6:00 Still feeling good but getting hot. I need to get a fan to blow on me.

Mile 4: 5:57 The mile felt good and felt comfortable.

.3 5:30 Little pickup at the end.

Evening:

Went to the Gym and did some strength training with my wife.  Not heavy weights light weights high repetitions to get good circuit training.  I used to lift all the time before I started running and was a pretty good size.

3 X 20 quad press 90 -100 LBS

3 X  20 Hamstring press 70 LBS

3 X 20 Calf Extensions  130 LBS

3 X 20  Crunch Press  90 - 110 LBS

Well this morning I decided to run outside even though it was -7 degrees with a 5mph making it colder than that. I wore my Underarmour cold gear long sleeve turtleneck shirt (first layer), Tech tri dry long sleeve shirt (second Layer), and my NorthFace windproof jacket (third layer), and tights with shorts over the tights. Head protection I wore my UnderArmour cold gear mask. Hand protection Mittens. I wore my regular running socks and I decided to wear my running shoes and not go barefoot :-). I'm explaining this thoroughly in case anyone else wants to know what will protect them in these conditions. I would have probably ran on my treadmill downstairs if it wasn't so hot, and if we had a fan down there. But I was tired of running on the treadmill the last few days.

The first two miles were cold on my forehead, because the wind kept lifting my mask up when the wind would push against it (next time I need to put a stocking cap over it). I decided to run the first two miles in the wind, and the rest of the run I would avoid the wind until the last mile, splits (7:10, 6:35). It really wasn't that cold or didn't feel bad after the first two mile warm-up, but I did have icicles on my eyelashes and mustache and around the cold gear cap itself. The next three miles I ran (6:35, 6:43, 6:23). This point I had my mask underneath my nose, because I had to keep my nose from freezing up by blowing the frost out of it. The last three I ran (6:21, 6:21, 6:24) I didn't feel I was pushing the pace maybe because my mind was more on the music I was listening to or paying attention to the weather conditions. All in all a good run in extreme below zero weather and definitely a challenge.

Totals miles 8.6 Time: 59:25 overall pace: 6:39

Lunch:

Not time for run on lunch hour. Maybe I can seek in a few tonight.

Evening:

I was able to get 5.3 miles in tonight before I taught our Youth Bible Study. I did this on the home treadmill. I did most of the run at 6:30 and did the last .5 at 5:40 pace. I watched college basketball which kept me entertained on the Treadmill.

Started running at -2 degrees felt like a heat wave compared to the -7 degrees yesterday. The last mile the wind picked up to 10mph (according to the weather when I got home), and was blowing in my face. That was really the only coldness I felt on my face during the run. I ran 9.5 miles at a 6:46 pace in 1:04. My mustache and eyelashes still were frozen during and after the run, but really today wasn't bad.

Tomorrow the temperature I believe is suppose to be above zero in the morning. I wore the same apparel that I wore yesterday to stayed layered and protected. There was really no ice on the road so I could move at a decent pace.

I won't be able to run on my lunch hour so maybe I'll be able to do some tonight at the gym, or just lift weights with my lovely wife. I have meetings at work that's really occupying my time and life right now.

Evening

Ran 3.2 miles at a 6:55 minute pace on my home treadmill, then we wen to the gym and I ran another 1.5 miles. I did the first .5 in high 5 minute pace and did the last .5 in 5:00 pace and the mile average was 5:40.

Then at the gym I rotated on the weight machines with my wife.  We did strength training on the Quads, Calves, Hamstrings, and Abs.  Very good workout.

 I'm going to be sore for my long run tomorrow if I decide to do it tomorrow morning.

20.32 miles today at a 6:46 pace in 2:17 at 10 degrees with the wind pushing against me at time in the run. A lot of rolling hills in this course, but a lot more uphill than downhill. I will discuss more later....

I was tired before the run today, because the night before I did a little speed work plus strength training with my wife.  The strength training made me sore and I knew I would be a little sore in the 20 miler.  I also feel I didn't eat enough at dinner, but the run really went fine.  I took three teaspoons of honey before I felt for the run to get something in my stomach.

The last couple of miles I lagged a little bit and could have been better, but I wasn't really tiring to push any speed anyway.   My eyes felt tired like they wanted to fall asleep in the run and my legs felt heavy the first few miles.  Our son kept us up during the night getting up a couple of times.  

  I took an energy gel at mile 11 and grabbed some snow to wash it down ( I didn't take water with me).  I did about 10 medium marathon pace miles at around a 6:30 pace.  I basically wanted to be on my feet for a long time to get the aerobic fitness vs hurrying through the run.  I'm a little sore after the run, but I was expecting that with all that I did yesterday.  But to do a 20 miler and finish with the work I did yesterday I feel real good about that. 

I was dressed in two layers on the top, and by mile 5 I wanted to strip everything off.  I guess running in the below zero weather the last few days, and running in 10 degrees today must of made my body feel like we were having a heat wave. 

 I really tried to get a lot of uphill miles on this long run  to strengthen my legs and get more uphill running training.  I have to work late tonight again (disk mirroring maintenance and more wonderful security patches) so Saturday would have been hard to get up early and do a long run.   I'll do probably around 8 - 10 miles tomorrow.

Ran 11 miles at an overall 6:40 pace in 1:13. Ran in the wind the first 5 miles which made it a little tough, but to be a good runner you can't let nothing stop you. We had a heat wave today it was 16 degrees I wanted to take my second layer off by the third mile. Really uneventful run other than listening to my music. I seen more runners out today than I have in along time. There's a runner group that a lady here is trying to start up and they run at 8am, but I go up at 8:40am so that was a no go. Their not competitive it's just for fun and promote exercise.

I've never ran a training run in weather like it was this morning where it changed so fast. I ran a total of 9.1 miles in an overall 6:58 pace in 1:03, but it was far from fun. First, the wind was blowing at 30mph with gusts up to 50, and I decided to run right in it so I could get the tailwind on the way back.

The first 4 miles in the wind were pretty tough but manageable. Then when I was about to turn around hail started coming down to the point were it hurt because of the wind drifting the hail/snow in your face, and making it hard to see. Then it came down harder and it didn't matter what direction you ran it hit you directly in the face. I was just trying to survive to make it back home for the last 5 miles. There were times I had to put my head down and just run because the snow was blowing so hard in your face that you just couldn't see.

It made my face so cold. I couldn't cover the ski mask over my mouth because the wind would press against it and I couldn't breath. The wind caused the underarmour ski mask to suck in my mouth as if I was having it for lunch. What worked best was putting my head down or turning my head to the side. The snow was at a blizzard status the last 2 miles of the run, and the wind was still blowing around 30mph if not harder. I managed to make it home and I was glad. The snow is still coming down hard now. This storm was suppose to come around 12pm so I thought I was going to miss it with the morning run.

Lunch:
I hurried and shoveled our sidewalk and driveway so our daycare parents would have a clean surface to transport their kids when their picked up. Then I hurried and ran 5.1 miles on the home treadmill. I ran between a 6:30 and 6:00 pace with a.4 5:40 pickup at the end. I felt tired at first, but got in a groove. The run this morning really made me work, and my face still feels sore from the hail hammering it.

At least inside I didn't have to fight a blizzard or hail beating my face only the boredom of running on a treadmill. But I know we complain about treadmills, but they really do come in handy when weather or schedules don't permit you to run outside. I also think that running on a treadmill does burn more calories so there are some good things about treadmills.

Temperature today was 16 with 22mph wind like yesterday, but no snow (good news!). I ran mostly on packed snow which of course makes it harder to push off. I did a couple faster miles where there were stretches where the snow wasn't as bad (6:03, 6:26). The last mile I was a little fatigued not sure why, maybe running the uphill in packed snow, or for that matter running most of the run my feet trotted in the packed snow. Totals 10.7 miles at an overall 6:58 pace in 1:14.

This is probably it for me today. I have a busy schedule during lunch. My wife and I will go to the gym tonight and so some strength training.

Lunch

Was able to sneak in 2 miles on the Home treadmill at lunch

Evening:

Lift weights at the gym tonight. Three cycles of quads, hamstrings, calves, and abs.

I'm sure I'll be sore for my run tomorrow, oh well I just like to stay fit and that's more important than running performances to me. 

I ran outside this morning in terrible conditions with the wind blowing and snowing again like Monday, but not snowing as hard. The temperature was 15, but with the wind chill it made it 7 degrees. I ran 11 miles at an overall 6:46 pace in 1:15. I really couldn't pick up any fast miles in this run because of the surface conditions. I could have ran on the home treadmill or gym, but I figured running on packed snow can only strengthen your legs, unless you slip and fall.

The wind played a good part in making sure I was focused, because I ran on a busy road where the visibility caused by the snow , "I'm sure", made it hard for cars to see me. I did the last mile in 6:20 in the wind.

I had to hurry to work because I was in a training class all day till 4pm for our Luminis Portal System.

Lunch:

I hurried home from our training session and was able to get 4.5 miles in on the home treadmill. I ran the first mile 6:15 and the rest in 6:07 to barely under a 6 minute pace.

This morning I woke up weak and tired. I didn't sleep very good last night, because of the stomach pain I had all night. I think it was due to the deep fried mushrooms I had for dinner. I probably got about two hours sleep. I think the mushrooms absorbed too much oil in the breaded deep fried pancake batter causing the stomach pains.

Before I left for the run this morning I digested a big tablespoon of honey, and a drink of Vault Zero to boost my energy level from the lack of sleep. I know most of you are going to shake your heads about the caffeine intake, but it really did help.

I took it slow the first mile at a 7:42 pace to wake up the body and legs. The temperature was 16 degrees with the wind blowing at 20mph with wind gusts up to 30mph. I ran the first 5 miles into the wind (I'm so tired of the wind every morning) and averaged around a 7 minute pace. Then circled around and ran the last 5 miles in a tailwind in stretches and that felt better. My legs were not motivated for any speed at all. My body kind of feels run down a little for some reason. Anyway, overall I ran 10.2 miles at an overall 6:53 pace in 1:10. I did do two consecutive miles at a 6:23, and 6:28 pace to get some effort in the run.

Lunch::

Ran 6.33 miles on the home treadmill.  Did the first mile in 6:49, and the rest around 6:30 to 6:05 pace.  I wasn't in the mood to run faster, because I felt weak all day because of the lack of sleep.  I watched ESPN which was discussing everything you need to know about the players leading up to the Superbowl.