Weather - 25 degrees, sunny, windy. Today I began moving out of my winter phase. Before running the hill repeats I decided to run a mile at 5k pace. The track at Urbana HS was covered in snow, so I decided to run the mile on the pedestrian/bicycle path that runs North/South on Race street. I labored with my breathing in the first 400 meters, but I then recovered my form and ran ok for the remainder of the distance, which I covered in 7:02. As I walked the mile back to the start, I decided to run it again, as I felt the reason I was sluggish was because I did not have enough of a warm-up (I ran 2 miles to the path, then stretched, I probably needed to do a few strides to get my lungs ready for the faster than normal pace). The thought of running another mile at 5K pace was a bit daunting because I have been mostly running at an easy pace for about 3 months, and have not run a 5K in 7 months. And the fast running I have been doing has been between 1-3 minutes in duration. Doubling that time while running on the edge I knew was going to be a big hurt to the system. The second mile went much better, I started smoothly and remained calm and controlled for the entire distance, which I ran in 6:51. I then jogged to the arboretum and did 8 hill repeats, in which I bounded up the hill instead of sprinting. The racing season begins next week for me, so I believe now is the time to begin the faster runs and tougher training sessions. Considering that I have not run a mile at a fast pace since last July, I actually feel good about my times today. One reason is because I was wearing 2 pair of long underwear, sweatpants, 2 tshirts and a heavy sweatshirt, a jacket, hat, gloves, and facemask. That added 3-4 pounds to my body, and it restricts my range of motion in the arms and legs (during the second mile one of the pairs of long underwear was slipping down my hips, and I had to pull them up a few times while running hard). When I can finally lose the winter clothing and the air is warmer, I should be able to move my 5k mile time down to 6:15-6:25 per mile without too much work. Moving it down to 6:00-6:05 will be the challenge. I checked the long range weather for next Saturday, it looks like it will be in the 30's, which means I won't be running comfortably. I was hoping to run 21:30 without much of a struggle, but after today's mile runs I think 22:00 is a more accurate estimate. #103 z.m. - #17 | 