Carolyn's Running Blog

Easy run. Average pace: 10:03/mile.

Outside temp: 33°F, very fine mist

I knew I was in for it when I went to drive my son to seminary and had to scrape 1/4" of solid ice off of the windows of my car. However, the Smartwool socks that I ordered last week came in the mail yesterday and it wasn't a minute too soon. Those socks are magic, I'm tellin' ya. While various parts of me were alternating between two hot and too cold throughout the run, my feet were just right the whole time. I bought two pairs of the socks because I wanted to try them out and make sure I got the right size before getting more, but I may just have to order a couple more pairs today.

I ran without my glasses again on account of not wanting them to get fogged up with my breath coming up out of the neck gator. I tend to imagine things when I don't wear my glasses because things look fuzzy and I'm not sure what they are. For example, this morning, I thought there was some kind of animal scooting through the gutter, but it turned out to be a shadow.

I need to head in to work in a few minutes and I'm afraid I'm going to have to scrape my car again. We've just had this steady, misty drizzle the whole morning. Fortunately the streets and sidewalks weren't icy when I ran because the ground is warmer than the surface of my car.

My gifted but hard-headed and sometimes foolish 6th grader insisted on wearing shorts and a sweatshirt but no coat to school today. I offered him new gloves and he refused them. I told him I felt like a negligent parent letting him go out the door like that, but he insisted that he is fine. I hope he's cold all day so that he learns his lesson. He doesn't seem to think that it's necessary to dress warmly unless it's snowing.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:29.

Outside temp: 50°F, light wind that seemed more significant when I was running into it.

I was really tired this morning (still am). I was quite congested when I got up. This cold doesn't seem to be getting really bad, but it's not getting better yet either.

I did the level 3 shred, drove the boy, then ran. I just could not get going with any speed today. In looking at my stats in Training Center, I see that only one of the six miles had more descent than ascent. No wonder it felt like it was all up hill this morning.

My average pace was actually probably just slightly faster than 10:29. The first mile got off because the driver of a call-and-ride bus stopped me in a neighborhood and asked me where a street was. I wasn't much help to him. He was looking for Lark Sparrow Trail. We were on Lark Sparrow Drive. There's also Lark Sparrow Street, and Lark Sparrow Way, and Lark Sparrow Court, etc. That's the way neighborhood streets are named around here. It's insane. I know which one is Lark Sparrow Drive because it's the big one that winds all the way through the neighborhood. But I couldn't tell him where to find Lark Sparrow Trail. I did find it a little later on my run, but I couldn't communicate that to the driver at that point.

I'm reading a book called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. It's a memoir and is kind of a fun read. While I was eating breakfast this morning, I read his description of an ultramarathon (62 miles) that the author ran one time. I kept thinking about Deborah, The Little Engine That Could. It gave me a whole new appreciation for what she does.

Easy/Progression Run. Average pace: 9:52.

Outside temp 53°F

This was supposed to be an easy run, but it was actually kind of hard for the first half because there was a moderate wind from the south and the first half was mostly uphill and going south into the wind. I kept going looking forward to turning the corner at the half way point and heading north, downhill, with the wind behind me.

My split times were 10:25, 10:41, 10:25, 9:44, 9:16, 8:57, 9:40.

The last mile was slower because it had more uphill and came south again.

I ate some cookies yesterday that I shouldn't have. I've got to do better today. I'd like to lose 5 lbs. in the near term, and then maybe another 10 after that in the longer term.

Easy run with negative splits and just a little extra effort the last 2 miles. Average pace: 10:03.

Outside temp: 47°F

The t.v. news said it was 36°, but that's the temperature at their studio. That's the temperature I've been going by up until today. But last Saturday evening I bought a window thermometer and it said 47 this morning. It felt more like 47, so I'm going with that, even though I'm not sure how accurate the window thermometer is since it's on the outside of one of my windows, so close to the house. I think it's probably a little colder if you get farther from buildings.

I felt pretty congested when I got up this morning and I overslept just a little bit, but I got up and did the shred anyway, though I moved a little slower and didn't get as many reps of some things as I usually do. And then I went for a run. I started slowly, but got feeling a little better as time went on and finished my last mile in 9:19.

I had been doing hill sprints on Mondays, but I think I'm going to drop the hill sprints for the time being, at least until I get over this cold.

Day off.

This doesn't have anything to do with running, but my choir did an AWESOME job today.
We sang "Pilgrim's Hymn" by Stephen Paulus. This song is on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's CD Consider the Lilies. The Tabernacle Choir does it in 8 parts and a capella. We did it in 4 parts and with the piano because we went way flat when we tried to do it a capella. Still they did a really great job today. Now we've just got to learn 5 songs for Christmas.