Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run. Average pace: 10:18.

I accidentally set my alarm for 5:30 pm, but I woke up at 5:30 am anyway.

It was a flat run at sea level. The only hills were two bridges that went over a river.

It was a very pleasant run. I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. I was running along a road that goes along the shore of the San Francisco Bay and I noticed that there was a trail that went along the side of the road, closer to the shore. I couldn't really see the trail, but I could see people walking on it. It was still fairly dark and I felt safer staying on the road since I'm in an unfamiliar place and I didn't know where the trail went, but I finally got the guts to cross the street and go up on the trail and stayed on the trail untill it looked like it would diverage from the road that I had intended to follow. I think I'll try to find an entrance to the trail earlier in the run tomorrow.

It definitely is easier running at sea level than at 5800 feet.

Saucony Omni 6: 87.26

Tempo run, flat at sea level.

I did one mile slow, then pushed the pace for 4 miles, and then one mile slow. I got out a little earlier than yesterday and I ran faster, so I had time to do 6 miles instead of 5. Also, a greater porportion of the run was in the dark, so I was glad for the headlamp and reflective vest. I also went more on the bay trail today. It's back to running hills at high altitude tomorrow. It's amazing how much easier it is to run on flat ground at sea level. I probably could have run even faster if I hadn't eaten the junk they provided to me yesterday.

Split times:

1 - 10:34

2 - 9:10

3 - 8:44

4 - 8:40

5 - 8:27

6 - 10:24

Saucony Omni 6: 93.26

Easy run. Average pace: 10:46.

Back in Colorado with hills and high elevation. I overslept by 10 minutes this morning, which put everything behind. Nevertheless, I did the shred level 2 with 5 lb. weights before the kid drop-off and my run.

I didn't eat well in California. I've got to recommit myself to healthy eating now that I'm home.

Long run. Average pace: 10:25.

I tried to make it an easy run, but it was very hilly, which made it a little difficult at times. The last 1/3 was especially uphill. The total ascent for the run was 1066 ft and the total descent was 1012 ft. It was a different route than I've run the last two Saturdays.

During my run I thought about all the blog members running the St. George Marathon today and Snoqualmie running the Portland Marathon tomorrow. I hope they all had or have a great race. I'm looking forward with some anticipation and some trepidation to my more formal marathon training and the lengthening of the long runs.

Saucony Omni 6: 103.47

Easy run plus 3 short hill sprints.

I did the Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred level 2 with 5 lb. weights before my run.

It was warmer this morning than I thought it would be. But for some reason as I headed out the door I had this strange thought that I was kidding myself thinking that I could run 5 miles. Of course that's crazy. I have run that distance and more lots of times. It was just this strange "what in the world am I thinking" irrational thought.

Average pace: 10:40.

I goofed on the first hill sprint and hit the start/stop button instead of the lap button, so I don't have stats for the first hill sprint, but it was probably about the same as the second hill sprint. I pushed it a little harder on the third.

Hill Sprints:

1 - ????

2 - 11.25 sec at 7:27/mi

3 - 10.80 sec at 6:43/mi

Saucony Omni 6: 108.85

Progression Run - 3 miles easy, then 3 miles moderate to hard effort

I had to run early this morning because I had to get to work early for a meeting. As a result, I finished my run about the time I normally start and the whole run was in the dark. I'm glad I got the headlamp and reflective vest. I took the route I did because I wanted to see the progress on a new church they're building, but it was too dark to really see it. Oh well.

I was debating whether to do a tempo run today. I decided to just head out and speed up if I ever felt like it. I didn't feel like speeding up until the end of the 3rd mile, which not coincidentally was the point at which I had a long downhill after mostly uphill for the first 3 miles. So I guess it turned into a progression run instead of a tempo run. I would call it a moderate effort for miles 4 and 5 and the first part of mile 6, but then a hard effort for at least the last half of mile 6 because I had some more uphill then and I was really pushing it at that point and breathing very heavily.

Average pace - 9:40

Splits - 10:48, 10:33, 10:30, 9:08, 8:34, 8:31

Saucony Omni 6: 114.96

Easy run. Average pace 10:51.

I was tired this morning, but I got up and did the shred level 2 before my run. Then I made my easy run easier than I usually do. Besides tiredness, I have a sore spot on my foot. It's on the inside edge of my right foot just below my big toe. I've got bad calouses there and that's the spot where I got a big blister after I got the new shoes. The blister is gone and it hasn't bothered me for a while, but now all of the sudden it's red and sore. I had been switching off between the new and old shoes, but I've got over 100 miles on the new shoes now and I figured they were broken in, so I've worn the new shoes exclusively this week. I think I'll switch to the old shoes for the rest of the week, and then continue the alternating for a while longer.

I had a minor car encounter on my run this morning. I was going across a crosswalk where a side street meets a main road. A car on the side street was approaching the crosswalk and a stop sign. I thought she saw me, but apparently not, because she pulled beyond the stop sign and halfway into the crosswalk before stopping. I had to change my course and go around the front of her car in order to not run straight into it. I looked at her as I went past but she didn't seem to be looking at me. I wonder if she ever saw me.

A little while later I saw a guy in a tigger costume and a tae kwon do uniform standing on the sidewalk waving and holding a sign advertising the opening of a new tae kwon do studio. I decided that I would give him a high 5 as I went past. He must have had the same thought, because as I came up to him he held up his hand for a high 5. That erased the unpleasantness of the car incident that had happened minutes earlier. I would maybe look into the new tae kwon do studio, but my boys are already taking tae kwon do and we're very loyal to our current sabumnim.

Saucony Omni 6: 119.96

Fartlek run. Easy pace other than 5 times when I picked up the pace for an uphill stretch. Average pace - 10:10. I don't have stats for the faster uphill portions because I didn't time them separately. Those faster portions make my average pace faster so that it doesn't really depict the pace I ran for the slower parts.

I hadn't planned ahead of time to do a fartlek run. I've been doing tempo runs on Thursdays the last couple of weeks, but I thought I'd just go easy today since I did a progression run on Tuesday (which in the past has been an easy day) and I have a race on Saturday. However, I was feeling pretty good and when I got to the bottom of a hill in the second mile, I decided just to run faster to the top of the hill. After I did it that one time I decided that I'd do it a few more times during the run. On days when I don't do the shred (like today), I feel like I should push the pace a little.

This was mostly the same route that I ran on Tuesday, but it came out .33 longer because I took a loop at the beginning that I didn't take on Tuesday. I have so many different routes and they are all have common elements. I've got standard sections that I piece together to get different distances. So I sometimes get mixed up and forget whether I'm supposed to include a specific portion in a run or not. That's what happened this morning.

I put a bandage over the sore spot on my foot and wore the old shoes, and it felt fine during the run.

Update: I got feeling sick - drippy nose, scratchy throat - after I had been to work for a couple of hours. After lunch, I came home and took a nap and now I've got to work at home for a while.

Easy run. Average pace 10:26.

I was up a little late last night because it's hard for me to go to bed on time if I take a nap during the day and I had a long nap yesterday afternoon. But then I slept late this morning. I didn't get in until 7:00. I'm working at home because my kids don't have school today and I'm also trying to stave off a cold. But I kept with my exercise routine. I did the shred level 2 with 5 lb. weights and then went for a run.

It's pretty cold and overcast today. I was wearing an old long-sleeved Illinois t-shirt that I got when my husband was going to the University of Illinois. I was running along the sidewalk of a fairly busy road this morning and a guy in a car that was stopped at a light opened his window and hollared at me and then showed me that he was wearing an Illinois shirt too. That was kind of cool. It perked me up and I ran a little faster for a little ways until I realized I was running too fast and slowed down.

It's going to be cold and possibly rainy tomorrow for the 10 mile race I'm doing with Laura. It's on a dirt trail. I just hope it's not muddy.

It was a COOOOLD race. I started out with a sweatshirt on and took it off and tied it around my waist after a couple of miles, but I put it back on at about mile 8 because it got much colder all of a sudden. It was very cold at the finish.

It was also a somewhat treacherous trail. Most of the time it was only wide enough for one person. There were also rocky parts that were a little tricky to navigate, a stream to jump over (twice), some very steep (but short) downhills, and some sharp turns. It was also a strange course in that it doubled back on itself two or three times. And it was very hilly. It seemed like there was a lot more uphill than downhill, though I know that's not possible since it started and ended in the same place.

Laura and I ran together until the very end. It was really fun to meet and run with Laura. She did a great job with a sore knee.

Now I need to wash my shoes. It didn't rain (hooray!), but it was a dirt trail and my shoes got quite dirty.

Easy run with 3 hill sprints at the end. Average pace - 11:04

Hill sprints:

1 - 10.73 seconds @ 7:04/mile

2 - 10.86 seconds @ 7:04/mile

3 - 11.10 seconds @ 7:34/mile

I ran slowly today. I don't know if it was because I was tired or if it was because it was cold (34 degrees) or if it was because I was trying to listen to General Conference on my mp3 player.

I did the shred level 2 before my run.

This week is supposed to be a step back week, or whatever you call it. I'm going to do pretty much the same during the week that I did last week, but I'll do a shorter run on Saturday.

Here's a weird thing. My husband's community orchestra and my oldest son's youth orchestra played a side-by-side concert at a local high school last night. About a half hour after the concert ended and we left, someone drove through the front door of the high school and down the hall. The school is now closed until they can repair the damage. We're waiting to find out if it was someone connected to the concert who did it. I hope not.

Saucony Omni 6: 125.69

Easy run. Average pace - 10:29. Outside temp - 32°F.

Just an average run today. Nothing special happened. I did get startled by a dog at one point that looked like it might jump the fence, but only its front paws made it over the fence, so it wasn't a big deal.

 I just remembered a thought I had during the run. It would be nice if I could put hot chocolate instead of water in my water bottle. But it wouldn't stay hot over the hour-long run in freezing weather. I'd have to insulate it somehow. Maybe it's not a good idea anyway, but it's like when I was a kid and wished that Sprite would come out of the drinking fountains at school.

Easy run. Average pace - 10:46.

Outside temp - 32°F. Clear skies.

I got up and did the shred level 2 with 5 lb. weights. I think I'll do level 2 one more week after this week and then move up to level 3 and do that for a while and then maybe start a different strength-training program. I've got a balance ball that I haven't used much. I might give it a go.

My legs felt heavy on the run this morning. I've just been tired all week. Maybe I'll sleep in on Saturday and then do my run after swimming lessons since it's not as hot as it was last time I tried a mid-day run. Of course I think it's supposed to be warmer on Saturday than it has been the last few days.

I realized this morning that I'm not going to have to drive my son to seminary at all next week because the kids have the week off from school (fall break). That's going to make it harder for me to get up on time in the morning. But not having to get kids off to school will also save me some time in the morning.

A few days ago someone left or dropped a mattress in a painted island in the middle of a road near my house. I noticed last night and again on my run this morning that someone stuck two political signs into the mattress. They're not for candidates. They're for ballot issues - one for school funding and one for library funding. It just gave me kind of a chuckle on my run this morning.

Saucony omni 6: 130.78

Tempo run - 2 miles easy, 4 miles tempo, 0.60 miles easy

Outside temp - 36°F, clear skies

Just for fun I actually put hot chocolate in my water bottle for my run this morning. It was lukewarm chocolate by midway through the run and cool chocolate by the end of the run. I don't think it really made a difference in my performance, but it was kind of silly and fun. I don't think, however, that I'll do it again. I didn't drink all of it. I dumped out what was left when I got home.

I decided to do a tempo run with a 2 mile warm up, which is hard to do on this particular route because the first 3 miles are up hill, so the first mile of the tempo portion is pretty hard. Once I got going in the tempo portion I gave it a pretty good effort and probably ran as fast as I could maintain over the distance.

Incidentally, the old mattress with the political signs stuck in it was gone. The mattress had been there for a couple of days. I guess the signs finally brought enough attention to it that someone got rid of it.

Since this was a tempo run, I'll include my splits.

1 - 11:00

2 - 11:15

3 - 9:48

4 - 8:53

5 - 8:08

6 - 7:53

0.60 - 10:24

Easy run. Average pace: 10:32.

Outside temp: 40°, clear skies.

I thought I would be tired from yesterday's tempo run, but I felt okay. I overslept by 10 minutes, but I managed to do my Wii Fit body test and the shred level 2 before taking Caleb to seminary. But I didn't have time to get my running clothes on until after I took him, so I got out for the run a little later than I would have liked. No big deal, though.

Since it was a little warmer, I went without the sweatshirt. We're supposed to have a warm weekend, and then more cold weather next week. It's actually supposed to be in the upper 70s tomorrow afternoon, so I think I'll go ahead and do tomorrow's run in the morning. I don't have to go terrifically early since I'm only going to do 6 miles since this is supposed to be an easy week.

Saucony Omni 6: 136

Easy/moderate run. Average pace - 10:03.

Outside temp: 43°

I ran in the morning but not as early as I have to do on weekdays. I was able to run without the head lamp and reflective vest. I tried a new route that I've never done before. I took the bike trail that goes along C-470 from Colorado Blvd. to Quebec St. and then came back along greenbelt trails. I've ridden my bike on the C-470 trail before, but had never run it. It is quite hilly. One of these days I'll do the portion west of Colorado Blvd., which is even hillier than the portion east of Colorado Blvd. that I did today.

I forgot that they are doing major road construction on Quebec St. until I saw a highway sign along C-470 suggesting alternate routes. I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get through the portion of Quebec St. that I needed to go through to get to thegreen belt. I figured if that happened, I would just turn around and go back on the C-470 trail. However, there was a paved pedestrian path separated from traffic by those cement traffic dividers through the construction zone. That was nice.

The only problem with this route is that there is a lot of traffic on Quebec Street and a lot of people pulling out from parking lots. There was one guy this morning that was looking beyond me down the street and just kept easing forward into the cross walk where I was. I wasn't sure at what point he was going to stop. He had his window open, so I hollered at him so that he would look and see that I was there.

I did a shorter run today because this is supposed to be an easy week. It's back to long runs on Saturday next week.

Easy run w/ 3 hill sprints. Average pace: 10:44.

Outside temp: 46°F. It's supposed to get colder later in the week, down into the 20s.

Hill sprints:

10.3 sec @ 6:30/mi

10.54 sec @ 7:20/mi

10.4 sec @ 6:40/mi

I discovered how to make myself run slowly: run with a slow person. I talked to a friend at church yesterday and she wanted to run with me on a dirt trail this morning. She normally runs on the indoor track at the rec center and she says that running on roads hurts her knees. So I got up and did the shred and then ran to her house this morning (about 1.25 miles) and then got in her car with her and we drove to the trail. I ran the trail with her for about a mile and a half at a very slow pace and stopping to walk sometimes. I told her that when we were finished running on the trail that I would run back home instead of driving back with her. Before we were all the way done with the trail she told me that she needed to walk the rest of the way and that I should go on ahead since I was going to run home, so I did that. I did the hill sprints when I got close to home.

I probably won't run with her much again, if at all, but I'm glad that I went with her. I didn't mind going slowly with her for that mile and a half and I was glad to find a dirt trail that's close to home and that I didn't know about. We didn't follow the whole trail. The trail continues on up a big hill, so I may go out there on a Saturday and try a longer run out there on the trail.

My kids are off school this week for fall break. I'm going to work at home half days and in the office half days so that I can be home at lunch time and make sure that they get something to eat. It does free up my mornings a bit, but I will have to exercise lots of discipline to get myself up on time every morning without the obligation of driving a kid to school.

Saucony Omni 6: 142.47

Easy run. Average pace: 10:29/mile.

Outside temp: 44°F. Clear skies.

I saw my next door neighbor out running again. I had walked a little ways down my street for a brief warm-up and was heading back towards my house when I saw her come out her front door and start running. She went the same way that I was planning on going but she was about 100 yards ahead of me. I ran my normal pace and gained on her very slowly. Just at the point that I was about to catch up with her (which happened to be at a corner), she turned around and headed back the way we came. I said Hi, but continued on around the corner and did the rest of my route. When I got home from my run about an hour later, she was pulling out of her garage to go to work. I waved to her again. So I don't think she ran more than to that corner where she turned around and back, which would be slightly over a mile, because she went on her run and got ready for work in the time that I went on my run. I really don't know her well at all. I need to be friendly and try to get to know her, but I see her outside only rarely. I suppose I could go knock on the door sometime, but I'll have to think of a reason to do that.

Easy run. Average pace 10:25.

Outside temp: 33°F, with a wind chill.

I bundled up pretty good this morning because right before I went out the local news was talking about the wind chill making it feel like 20°. But after I had been going for a while, I was feeling too warm. I unzipped my jacket and took my gloves off and was to the point where I was about to take the jacket off, but then I turned the corner and started going into the wind. I guess I had had the wind behind me up to that point. Right away, I zipped up my jacket, pulled the hood up, and put my gloves back on.

I also had a minor wardrobe malfunction, but it wasn't too big of a deal because I was wearing so many layers. But I'm not going to go into detail about it here on this public blog.

Saucony Omni 6: 147.59

Tempo run - 2 miles warm up, 3 miles pushing the pace, 1 mile cool down.

Average pace: 9:50. Splits: 11:13, 10:51, 9:34, 8:48, 8:32, 9:56.

Outside temp: 25°F, no noticeable wind.

My legs felt kind of heavy this morning, but I tried to do the tempo anyway. It was kind of hard, but I did it.

I dressed pretty warmly and it turned out to be too much since I was trying to run fast. I got too hot.

I've been having a weird thing with my right ankle this week. It hurts a bit, but not to the point that it makes me limp, when I get up in the morning. And then after a couple of minutes of running, it feels completely normal. By evening it's starting to hurt again and hurts when I kept up the next morning, until I start running, and so on. It's strange to me that running makes it feel better. I don't know what to make of it.

Saucony Omni 6: 153.77

Easy run. Average pace: 10:39.

Outside temp: 38°F.

I just feel tired and slow this morning. Nevertheless, I got up and did the shred level 2 with 5 lb. weights before my run. I think I'll move on to level 3 next week.

It was much warmer this morning than it has been the last couple of days. I bought a new mock turtleneck for running last night. It's polyester and spandex. I wore it this morning with my hoody. I've been wearing long sleeved t-shirts with the same hoody on other days with similar temperatures. This new shirt was a lot warmer than the long-sleeved t-shirts have been and I got too warm very quickly even though I wasn't running very fast. I spent most of the run with the hoody tied around my waist.

Tomorrow is the last long-run day in the foreseeable future that I have to get up early to do the long run because it is the last day of my daughter's swimming lessons. After tomorrow I won't have to hurry to be done with my Saturday long run before the swimming lesson. She could really use some more swimming lessons, but she wants to take a break from it and so do I. We'll start them up again in a couple of months.

Long run. Average pace: 9:52.

Outside temp: 42°F

I feel good about today's run. I just tried to maintain a relatively comfortable pace and focused on relaxing. The first four miles were all above 10:00 pace, but with each one faster than the previous one, and then the remaining 6 and a half miles were all 9:30 or faster. And I feel fine, not wasted. I had about half of a hammer gel at mile 5.5. I don't know if that helped, but it didn't make me sick.

With the completion of today's run I have now run 6 days/week for 5 consecutive weeks.

I plan to lengthen out my Saturday run next week to about 12 miles. I'm going to run from home to the beginning of the trail I ran with my friend last Monday, run the length of the trail, which has a little loop at the end, run back to the beginning of the trail, and then run back home.

Now I've got to go pound the pavement on behalf of a political candidate.

Saucony Omni 6: 164.29

Easy run + 5 hill sprints. Average pace: 10:38.

Hill Sprints:

10.90 sec @ 6:38/mi

10.88 sec @ 7:52/mi

10.90 sec @ 6:53/mi

10.79 sec @ 6:39/mi

10.24 sec @ 7:07/mi

Outside temp: 29°F

I had a bit of a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning even though I got to bed more or less on time last night. I guess I've just got to get myself back into the early routine after having fall break last week. But next week we fall back an hour so it will feel like sleeping in.

I did the level 3 shred this morning. I actually like level 3 better than level 2. It's probably a little bit harder but I like the level 3 exercises better. Level 3 has a lot of jumping (plyometrics) in it. We have a piano in the room that I do the shred in, and there is a metronome on top the piano. It's an electric metronome with an on/off switch on the back, not the old-fashioned weighted pendulum kind that my mom had when I was a kid. But I must have really been rattling the room with my jumping this morning because it turned the metronome on. It was pretty funny. I didn't want to stop to turn it off, but my son came into the room a few minutes later so I had him turn it off.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:13.

Outside temp: 35°F

Right after my husband left to drive my son to seminary I remembered that that same son had asked me several times last night for lunch money and I hadn't gotten around to giving him a check. I tried to call my husband to tell him to give the boy some money, but I heard his cell phone ringing when I called it so I knew he didn't have his phone. But then I remembered that the route I was planning to run would take me past the high school where they have seminary after about 2 miles. So I wrote a check and put it in my little pack and stopped in at the school and gave him the check during my run.

Mostly I was really fuzzy headed this morning. After I had dropped off the check I was running along daydreaming and suddenly got confused about where I was and thought that I had taken a wrong turn that would put me on a shorter route. So I turned around to go back and make the right turn. But after about 200 yards or so I decided that I really hadn't made a wrong turn, so I turned around again and went back the way I was originally going.

Later on I paused my Garmin when I stopped to wait for traffic and it took me several minutes of running before I realized that I had forgotten to turn it back on. So the total distance I've put down for today is partly a manual calculation. The average pace is what the Garmin says, which doesn't include the part I didn't time. I believe I was going faster than 10:13 during the part I didn't record, so my actual average pace was probably slightly faster than 10:13.

At one point in my run I could see a runner quite a ways ahead of me. I wondered whether I was going slower or faster than her and whether I would pass her. After a while I realized that I was getting closer and I did eventually pass her. But I guess she didn't want to be passed because she immediately picked up the pace and passed me. I stayed about 20 yards behind her for a little while after that, and then she turned off at a point where I went straight, so we parted ways.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:18.

Outside temp: 41°F, slight wind

Yesterday my upper back was a little sore (in a good way) from doing the level 3 shred on Monday morning, and my right arm was hurting from the flu shot I got yesterday. But I got up this morning and did the level 3 shred again before running this morning and that made me feel better, especially the sore arm.

I was running along this morning and I could see my shadow in front of me. All of a sudden I saw a shadow just over my shoulder through the corner of my eye and it startled me for a brief second and I thought that there was someone just behind me. But it turned out that it was my shadow. I had multiple shadows because there were multiple light sources at that point.

I had an idea about how to solve a problem with my daughter's halloween costume while I was running this morning. I've got to get some sewing done today. That's going to be tricky since I've got to work all day, I've got to do laundry, and I've got to go visiting teaching this evening. But I've got to get that halloween costume done so that we can go to the trunk-or-treat tomorrow night, not to mention trick-or-treating on Friday.

Tempo run - 2 miles warmup, 4 miles at faster pace, 1 mile cool down

Average pace: 9:29

Splits: 10:57, 10:49, 9:34, 8:38, 8:22, 7:55, 10:12

Outside temp: 45°F

I had a hard time getting going very fast on the third mile because it was almost all uphill. Miles 4-6, by contrast, were more downhill than uphill.

I got a little stitch in my side just before the end of the 6th mile. Does that mean I exceeded my lactate threshold or something like that? The stitch was gone by the end of the 7th mile.

I managed to get my daughter's costume finished last night. Now I've just got to carve pumpkins tonight.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:16

Outside temp: 43°F

I overslept by a half hour. I guess my body needed it. I had arranged for my husband to drive the boy to seminary, so I got up and did the shred anyway (I would have had time for that if I were driving to seminary) and then went on my run.

Yesterday I had a talk with a woman at work who has been doing triathlons and is now training for P.F. Chang's marathon in January. I told her that I'm running 6 days/week and am up to about 40 miles/week now and she was horrified. She said that that was too much and that I would get injured. She's working with a local coach and apparently that's the information she's getting from her coach. And she talked about a bunch of different online training plans and how they don't have that much mileage. I told her I was fine and that I could handle the mileage. I'm afraid I didn't defend the high mileage approach very well. But it will be interesting to see how she does on her marathon versus how I do on mine. It's not very fair to compare though, because she's probably 10 years older and at least 10 lbs. heavier than me, plus I have a lot more time to train since my marathon is in May.