Same Time, Same Channel

Long run. Average pace: 10:01.

Outside temp: 45°F at the start, probably in the 50s or maybe up to 60 by the end

This was an awesome run. I should do this route again if we have another nice Saturday.

I ran the trail that my friend showed me a couple of weeks ago. Only with her I ran just a small portion of the trail and today I ran the whole thing. It ended up being a little longer than I had anticipated because I had to make a couple of detours. First, just before I started on the trail (I had to run a ways to get to the trail) I went out of my way a little bit to go to a gas station and use the rest room. Later, the trail crossed a busy street and I went out of my way to cross at a light (there were signs telling trail users to do that). I also had to do that on the way back since I did an out-and-back on the trail, but with a loop at the end of the trail.

My friend told me the other day that the trail continued from where we were on it and went up a hill. That was an understatement. Here in Colorado you would call it a hill, but in some parts of the country it might be called a mountain. The elevation at the highest point I went to (according to my Garmin) was 6300 ft. The lowest elevation anywhere on my run was 5779 ft. There were switchbacks going up the hill. From the highest point on the run I could see pretty much all of the Denver metro area. It was cool.

Before I got to the hill I saw tons of prairie dogs. They looked pretty fat. I guess they're getting ready for winter. As I started up the hill I saw a sign that said, "Caution: Rattlesnake Area." That made me a little nervous. A little later on I saw another sign that said the same thing. At one point I thought I heard a rattle that didn't belong in "I Feel the Earth Move" by Carole King. I didn't look to see where it was coming from. I just kept going and got out of that area.

I saw a lot of people on the hill. Most of them were walking, but a few were running. I figured if I got bit by a rattlesnake at least someone would find me and call for help.

I was thinking of doing 14 miles next Saturday, but if the weather's nice, I might do that same route again. I could lengthen it out by doing the loop twice, but the loop is pretty much going up and down the hill, so that would be really hard.

Easy run with 5 hill sprints at the end. Average pace 10:14.

Shred level 3 with 5 lb. weights.

Hill sprints:

10.33 sec @ 6:54/mile

10.58 sec @ 7:29/mile

9.67 sec @ 7:31/mile

10.55 sec @ 8.02/mile

10.55 sec @ 7.32/mile

Outside temp: 50°F

It was warm enough to run in shorts. That may have been the last time I do that for a while. It's supposed to get colder this week.

My legs were still a little heavy from last Saturday's long run.

There were some kids coming down the hill I do hill sprints on on their way to the middle school while I was doing my 4th and 5th hill sprints. I knew one of the boys because he is in Tae Kwon Do with my boys. I spoke to them during my 4th hill sprint and I think that slowed me down.

My friend that I ran the Georgetown Half Marathon with and her husband are training for the Honolulu marathon. They are planning to run 18 miles this coming Saturday on the Highline Canal Trail. I'm very curious about the trail because I've never run it before and don't know exaclty how to get to it. They are going to start at mile marker 4 (the trail is marked) and run to mile marker 10 and back to 4, which will give them 12 miles, and then continue on to mile marker 1, and back to 4 again, which will give them 6 more miles for a total of 18 (his parents leave near mile marker 4). I'm thinking of running with them at least the first 12, and then I'll see how I feel and may go a little bit further. I wouldn't have to stick with them for the whole additional 6. I could just go to mile marker 3 and then back to 4 to make it 14 miles if I wanted, for example. They're planning to do it early in the morning so I'm seriously considering joining them.

Easy run. Average pace: 9:59/mile.

Outside temp: 43° F

This was probably the last warm day for a while. It's supposed to be significantly colder tomorrow.

This was just a kind of ordinary run. I was thinking of doing 7, but did 6 instead with the intent of trying to go longer than 12 on Saturday.

My high school kids are off of school today because the school is a polling place, so I didn't have to drive to seminary this morning. I still have to get the elementary school kids off to school. The situation is reversed on Friday.

Easy run. Average pace: 9:52.

Outside temp at beginning: 38° F.  Outside temp at end: 36° F.

It felt colder than those temperatures would indicate this morning. I kept putting my gloves on and taking them off. I wished that my ears were covered better.

Despite the cold temperatures I saw several runners this morning and I actually knew three of them. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful run.

I've got to run about an hour earlier tomorrow than I usually do because I'm going with my son on an orchestra field trip and we leave earlier tomorrow morning than I am usually ready. And it's going to be really cold tomorrow. The forcast says morning lows from 20 to 25 degrees.

Tempo run - 2 miles warm up, 4 miles tempo, 1 mile cool down

Average pace: 9:19

Splits: 10:35, 10:36, 8:59, 8:37, 8:50, 8:01, 9:33

The route I've been doing my tempo runs on recently is mostly uphill the first half and mostly downhill the second half. I changed it around today so that it had more uphill in the second half in addition to the uphill in the first half.

I'm off to a field trip with the orchestra students today.

Recovery run. Average pace: 10:27.

Outside temp at start: 29°F

Outside temp at end: 33°F

As I started out my left quad felt unusually stiff. It bothered me to one extent or another throughout the run. I really tried to take it slow and easy today because of the sore quad, the fact that I did a tempo run yesterday, and my plans for a long run tomorrow. Only one mile was below 10:00 and it was 9:56.

I got dressed for running before I drove my son to seminary. I put on some old running tights that I have with some shorts over them. When I left the house to drive to seminary I realized that the tights were too thin, so when I got back home I swapped the shorts for long exercise pants. That worked out pretty well.

My face was really cold during the first couple of miles of the run. At one point I pulled up the hood on my sweatshirt and tightening the drawstring so that it just left a little circle around my face. That helped. Then the sun came up a little more and my face felt better. I'm going to have to get some kind of ski mask, I think.

My oldest son is in Greeley for Western States Honor Orchestra. He plays the string bass. They had auditions for chairs yesterday and he felt like he blew the audition. However, he got 3rd chair out of 10 basses. We're driving up to Greeley tomorrow to hear his concert and bring him home. I'll have to get my long run in early tomorrow so that we can make it up to Greeley on time.

Long run. Average pace: 9:46.

I'm not sure what the outside temp was, but it was warmer than I expected it to be.

I got up at 5:00 and ate a bowl of oatmeal and a banana, then got dressed and drove to the house where I was meeting my friend and her husband. We got started on the run at about 6:00. They are training for the Honolulu marathon. Afterward, they joked that I should go to Hawaii and do that marathon because I ran a little better today than my friend did, but I don't want to run 21 miles two weeks for now, like they are planning to do.

Their dog went on the run with us. She is a very well behaved dog. They let her off leash but she was pretty good about sticking with us or coming back when she was called. For the first 10 miles or so, she kept sprinting on ahead of us and would then have to come back, but by the end of the run she was just keeping up with us.

We went out a little faster at the beginning than I typically do, so the run was a bit of a struggle for me, but I could do it. We really kept a pretty steady pace throughout. It was a basically flat course. It was a dirt trail and I got some tiny pebbles and dirt in my shoes, which was kind of annoying.

Next week is supposed to be an easy week for me and I'm looking forward to it. I don't know what crazy demon possessed me to run 18 miles today. I was originally planning on doing 12 or 14 today, but when I found out that my friend and her husband were running this trail today, I decided to go with them because I had never run this trail before and wanted to find out about it.

I rented "Spirit of the Marathon" from Amazon.com Unbox last night and watched it on the computer. My 6-year-old daughter watched some of it with me and she saw kids holding up signs for their parent who was running the Chicago Marathon. I told her that my next race is a 5K on Thanksgiving Day, so she's making a sign to hold up for me. I also told her that there's a free kids race that day and so she's also making a sign for me to hold up to cheer her on. I guess I'll have to be sure and register for that Turkey Day 5K now.

In the movie it seemed like the first-time marathoners only did one 20-mile run before the marathon. The old guy commented that they tell you that you can do that and then you'll be able to run the marathon, but that's it's not true because you hit the wall, but then you push through it. I don't want to be like that. I want to run 20 or more several times before my first marathon. I don't think that you necessarily have to hit the wall if you train properly and then race at a speed that your training supports. Maybe I'm wrong because I've never run a marathon and I don't know, but that's my guess at this point.

Hey! I'm only 4 spots behind Snoqualmie on the weekly mileage board. But she's doing a long run today and she did her last one last Sunday, so she'll be way ahead of me after she records today's run. Oh well. I can enjoy it for now.

Recovery run. Average pace: 10:46.

Outside temp at start: 37°F

Outside temp at end: 34°F

I got up and did the level 3 shred, then got dressed and drove my son to seminary. On the drive back home after dropping him off I was very sleepy and the thought occurred to me that maybe I should go back to bed for an hour instead of going for my run. But being the crazy person that I am (and realizing that I wouldn't be able to sleep because of other people in the family making noise), I went for the run.

The very top of my left leg, in both the front and the back, was hurting me and I started out very slowly. I thought about cutting my route down to 4 miles instead of the 6 I had planned, but when I got to about 1 mile and I had to either turn left for the 6 mile route or go straight for the 4 mile right, my leg was feeling better, so I turned left. However, I did dispense with the hill sprints that I've been doing on Mondays recently. I did get a little faster over the course of the run, but never too fast. My leg feels okay now. I'll have to see how it is tomorrow.

Easy/recovery run. Average pace 10:34.

Outside temp: 31°F

I guess I'm still recovering from last Saturday's 18 mile run. I may go slow all week. I'm still feeling a little tightness in my left quad, but it's not too bad. Also, my throat is a little scratchy and I think I might be coming down with something. I'm glad it's an easy week this week. I hope taking it easy for one week will be enough to get me going again.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:21.

Outside temp: 39°F

I normally do the shred before my run on Wednesday mornings, but I traded the shred for an extra half hour of sleep this morning. I figure that's the best thing to do given that I still have a little soreness in my left quad and I feel a cold coming on. But I still got out and did the run, because I think an easy run actually helps with the sore quad and the deep breathing of the cool air keeps my lungs clear (or so I like to think).

I'm going slower this week than I have the last couple of weeks, but I was probably pushing too hard the last couple of weeks. The aftermath of that Saturday run slowed me down, which is probably a good thing. However, I do seem to be recovering a little bit. I've been getting just a little bit faster each day this week. On Monday, my average pace was 10:46, on Tuesday it was 10:34, and today it was 10:21. Also, I ran negative splits for the whole run today. Each mile was 10-20 seconds faster than the one before.

At the end of my run I ran into a neighbor who lives across the street and up a few houses who runs. She was just heading out. We walked down the street and talked for a little bit. She is nursing a sore knee. She says she's okay for 6 miles and then it starts hurting her. She is much more friendly than my next-door-neighbor who also runs.

Progression run - 3 miles slow, 3.59 miles a little faster. Average pace: 9:59.

Outside temp: 49°F

I don't know where the warm temperatures came from today. It was unexpected.

I was going to do an easy run today, but I was on a course that is mostly and significantly uphill until just past 3 miles, and then is mostly and significantly downhill after that. So I took it easy the first 3 miles (10:42, 10:32, and 10:29), but then sped up a little but not tons for the rest of the run (9:43, 9:25, 9:27, 9:22).

I think I actually prefer hills over flat terrain, assuming that the course is either out and back or a loop (not point to point because point to point could potentially be all uphill). While I struggle (less than I used to) up the hills, I like the reward of the downhills and the chance to "rest" a little. With flat terrain, like I had for 18 miles last Saturday, it's a constant effort and you never get the chance to take it easy.

Easy run, if you can call it that. Average pace: 10:25.

Outside temp: 28°F, wind from the north, light but steady snow

I did the level 3 shred before heading out.

When I started out the snow was sticking to grassy areas, parked cars, and me, but not to the roads. The roads were just wet. After about 4 miles, either the temperature dropped or the elevation went up or something, because then I had snow sticking to the sidewalks. I ran almost all of the rest of the way on about a quarter inch of snow. But then when I got back to my house, it wasn't sticking to the sidewalks.

I ran a little farther than I had intended. I was going to head north through this park/open space that runs roughly north/south, but I had to run eastward along the south end of the open space to get to the trail, and the wind was whipping down through that open space like nobody's business. It was very uncomfortable to run across the open space. I wasn't about to turn north and run straight into that wind. So I went farther in order to go around it. I did have to turn north eventually in order to get back home. It was on a busy street, so it was still fairly open and windy, but not as bad because there were houses on either side of the busy street. But that's the part where the snow was really sticking to the ground.

There was one point after I turned off the busy street onto a smaller street and I was still running on a snow, that it was very quiet and peaceful for just a second. There was no sound, except my breath and my feet padding along on the snow and somebody's wind chime. But then I care came by and broke the moment.

I think this morning as my first real inauguration into winter running. I was glad I had too pairs of socks on. And I was pretty wet by the time I was done.

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

Outside temp at start: 33°F

Outside temp at end: 46°F

I slept in this morning. When I got up I did the shred because I had only done it twice this week (I skipped Wednesday) and I normally do it three times. Then I had some breakfast and then called all the choir members to remind them of tomorrow's practices and performance. Then I finally got around to running at about 10:00 am. I'm not used to running that late in the day. I had an idea that it would warm up, but I didn't expect it to warm up that much during my run and so I ended up being way over dressed.

I've definitely got a cold and I felt pretty sluggish, especially at the beginning. This was a very hilly route. I was finally able to speed up a little at the end. I ran the last full mile in 9:38, and was doing a 9:05 pace for the last 0.24, which was as fast as I could manage.

I hope that I'm able to get rid of this cold quickly. I wonder whether running makes my cold worse. I like to think not. After all, people who are bedridden are at risk for pnuemonia. Hopefully being up and moving around keeps my lungs clear. However, I do think that that 18 mile run last Saturday, which was significantly more than I was used to, weakened my defenses and that's why I got the cold in the first place.

I felt more exposed running today in full daylight than I do in the dark and half light of morning.

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.

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.

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. 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 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: 10:07

Outside temp at start: 50°F

Outside temp at end: 58°F

I'm taking the day off work today, so rather than run at 6:15 this morning when it was 30°F outside, I got all the kids off to school and then went for my run when it was considerably warm. I also managed to do the shred in between getting the first and second kids to school.

My legs felt very heavy when I started out today. I did feel a little better by the end, but never felt great. I felt much better yesterday. I guess you can't have two good running days in a row. At least I never seem to.

I had negative splits today up until the last mile, which was the same pace as the 4th mile.

I've got to clean house today because my in-laws are coming on Sunday (that's why I'm taking the day off from work). They're just coming for a couple of days so that they can go to Grandparents Day with my daughter. They're not staying for Thanksgiving.

**update**

I took a nap this afternoon instead of cleaning out my refrigerator.

Long run. Average pace: 9:51.

Outside temp: 37°F

I ran on the same trail that I ran 2 weeks ago with some friends who are training for the Honolulu Marathon. But this time I ran from the park/rec center instead of from his parents' house. I suspected that I might see them on the trail because I knew that they were planning to run 21 miles today on the same trail. It's a very popular trail because it is very long and miraculously rural in the middle of the Denver metro area. There are even horses boarded at some points along the trail. It's not a loop, so you have to run it out and back. I started out going north and headed towards my friend's parents' house. My friends started at his parents' house and went south and then we both turned around and changed directions at some point, and so I passed them twice. The first time they didn't recognize me. I recognized them because I was kind of expecting them and because the two of them with their dog are harder to miss. The second time I talked with them briefly as we passed.

There were a lot of runners on the trail today. And I saw a lot of runners in the rec center parking lot where I parked. It's a popular place to start from. I had a nice talk with a guy when I was stretching at the end of my run. He was impressed that 6 months before my first marathon I'm able to run 14 miles.

I kept a fairly steady pace throughout the run, but then decided to try to push it to the fastest pace that I could maintain over the last mile. I ran the last mile in 9:01. I can run faster than that on shorter runs, but I thought that was pretty good after being tired from having just run 13 miles.

I'll probably continue to use that trail for long runs because it is very well suited to them. I went north from the rec center today. I'll probably go south from the rec center next Saturday and explore that part of the trail.

Recovery run. Average pace: 10:48.

I just could not get going very fast this morning. It's probably because of my long run last Saturday, the fact that I ate too much junk over the weekend, and the fact that I stayed up too late last night. I've got to do better on the eating and the sleeping. Thanksgiving week is a hard time to crack down on over eating, but I've got to do it. I think I'll restart my food journal. I've got to try to get to bed earlier too. Last night was hard because my inlaws got here from Utah last evening and we were up late finishing a game of Monopoly. My 6-year-old daughter won thanks to a lot of luck, and advice from her dad.

I had a short talk yesterday with a woman at church who has her own triathlon training business. She recommended that I run a trail near hill called Waterton Canyon. I might have a go of it next Saturday if I have the time to drive out there.This morning on my run I passed this same woman who was running the opposite direction. That was fun.

I had a little tricky section on my run just behind the high school. Some people drop their kids off for school there instead of driving around to the front of the school. So there were cars stopped on both sides of the street with kids opening passenger-side doors to get out. The open doors made running on the sidewalk tricky, so I decided to run on the other side of the pulled-over cars, but that didn't work out so well either because those cars would suddenly pull out after dropping off the kid. I had to dance around a car that was doing that. I also stuck to one side of the street because there were some kids smoking on the other side of the street.

Tomorrow I'm going to run to work and run back home at the end of the day so that my inlaws can use my car. It's about 4.5 miles each way, but it's mostly downhill going there and mostly uphill coming home. I've never done two-a-days before and I've never run in the evening, so it should be interesting. Also, I've got to take a change of clothes and stuff to work today for tomorrow because I don't want to carry it on my back while I'm running to work. I can take a shower when I get to work.

AM: Easy run - 4.73 miles. Average pace: 10:02.

Outside temp: 44°F according to my window thermometer, but it felt colder than that to me.

I did the first half of my two-a-day. Unfortunately, that was the easy half since it was morning and was mostly downhill. I took it pretty easy and I hope I have enough in my tank for the mostly uphill return trip this evening. I'm going to take a different route on the way home so the mileage will probably be a little bit different. I'm not sure which way is shorter, but I suspect that the way I'm going to go home is a little shorter.

It's a logistical challenge to run to work since I don't want to run with a big pack of stuff on my back. I brought a duffle bag to work yesterday with a change of clothes, a towel, and toiletries. I'll change back into running clothes (I also brought some clean running clothes) this evening for the run home and leave today's work clothes and all that other stuff here in the duffle bag, and then take the duffle bag back home tomorrow. With this method, I can only run to work on alternating days, never on consecutive days unless I bright two days worth of stuff in the duffle bag. Running to work isn't really practical for me right now anyway because of my need to get kids off to school and then get them places in the late afternoon/early evening. It just works today because my inlaws are here. Maybe I'll do it someday when my kids are older if I still live a reasonable distance from my office like I do now.

I'll post details about my return trip this evening.

PM: Easy run - 4.75 miles. Average pace: 10:27.

So I was a little slower coming home than going, but that was too be expected. It wasn't too bad. The route I took home was definitely a more gradual uphill than I would have had if I had gone the same way I went to work. I should have taken my headlamp in the morning, but I didn't because it was light when I ran to work. It was dark running home. I did have my reflective vest, though. I'll see how I feel on tomorrow morning's run. I hope I didn't wear myself out too much because I'm doing a Turkey Day 5K. It's not a big deal if I blow it, but it would be nice to get a good time.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:19.

I slept in until 6:00 this morning since my kids don't have school. However, that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do since I do have to go to work and I'm going to be late. In any case, I got up and did Week 1 Day 2 of the push ups program, then did level 3 of the shred, and then ran. I felt okay on the run, not great, but not horrible. I actually was tempted to push the pace a little at one point, but then didn't because I'm running a 5K tomorrow and I thought I'd save my energy a little bit.

I felt pretty good about yesterday's two-a-day. I might try to do it again some time if the opportunity presents itself.

My Garmin was out of batteries, so I don't have good stats. I left it plugged in to the computer over night, and the computer got turned off. The Garmin must have been on and run down the battery.

I did some easy running before the race, but not a whole lot and not as much as I had planned, because the friend I was running with didn't want to run that much for a warm up.

I think that running it without the Garmin was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I didn't really know my pace, so I just ran as fast as I felt like I could. A curse because I love data and I don't have good data.

They had chip timing for this race, but I never saw a chip reader at the start. For that matter, I never saw the start line. I was a ways back in the pack and I was expecting to go over a start line, but I never did. However, there was a chip reader at the end. Maybe they're only reading end times and basing the start on the gun. It was really crowded at the start and so we started out pretty slow. I stayed with my friend for about half of the race, but she was struggling a bit and I was feeling pretty good, so with her permission I left her and took off. Official results aren't posted yet, but the clock said 26:46 as I crossed the finish line. I think that's about 2 minutes faster than my previous PR.

PM: Easy run of 2.11 miles. Average pace: 9:45.

My 16-year-old son wanted to go for a run (which he has never done before) so I went out with him. He is inclined to go faster than I am, which accounts for my pace, but I have more endurance. He turned around and headed home after a mile and I continued on, but I stayed at the pace that I was already going with him.

Time for pie.

**Update**

I got the official race results. I was right in that they didn't track the start with the chip. So my gun time is 26:46. I don't have a separate chip time. This gives me an average pace of 8:38.

Overall place: 295 out of 975

Gender place: 78 out of 460

Division place: 24 out of 128

Easy run on the slow side. Average pace 10:48.

Outside temp: 36° according to my window thermometer, 27° according to the local news. Motionbased, which is getting data from a weather station closer to my house than the tv station is, says 26°. In any case, it was cold.

I think my window thermometer isn't very accurate when the temperature inside the house is much different from the temperature outside the house, that is, when it's very cold or very hot.

I got up and did week 1, day 3, level 2 of the pushup program and did level 3 of the shred before my run. I have had the luxury of doing all three of these things in the morning last Wednesday and today because the kids don't have school and I haven't been in a rush to get in to work (although I have had to come to work). However, next week when the kids are back at school I won't be able to fit in all three. I'm thinking I could do the pushup program on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the shred on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and maybe Saturdays). But then I'm not getting a full two-days of rest between pushup days because the shred has pushups in it. But it only has two sets of 8 or 9 pushups. Maybe I'll give it a try next week.

For those of you who are also doing the push up program, I'm able to do level 2 because I've been doing the shred for 6 months and so I had a head start.

Long run. Average pace: 10:07.

Outside temp: 34°F

Yesterday I said that we didn't have any snow in Denver. That was true then. It's not true now. It snowed over night, but not too much, maybe an inch or two.

I ran on the Highline Canal Trail, which is a dirt trail. This time I went south from the rec center instead of north. I had never gone on this part of the trail before. I think I like the northern part of the trial better because it has tunnels that go under the busy streets that the trail crosses. On the southern section, I had to cross the same busy street (Broadway) three times each direction, so six times total. And two of the crossings (so four times), I had to go out of my way to go up to a crosswalk to cross instead of crossing where the trail left off and picked up again.

There are several different sets of mile markers on the trail. I used a different set today than I used last week. The one I used today has mile marker 8 at the rec center. I ran from there to mile marker 0 and back. That should have been 16 miles, but between going out of my way to cross the street four times and missing the 0 mile marker and overshooting it, I went more than 16. I could have stopped and walked when my Garmin said 16 miles, but I decided to keep going until I got back to the mile marker that I started at.

The trail was clear in some parts and had varying amounts of snow in other parts. There were some sections where it was packed with about an inch of snow. Also, there are big trees that line the trail in some places and their branches overhang the trail. Snow was falling a little bit at a time off of the trees and it was almost like it was snowing. A couple of times a big bunch of snow fell on me. It was like the trees were throwing snowballs at me.

It was actually quite picturesque, but I was too cold and tired to enjoy it much.

This was a difficult run for me today. If I keep doing this distance and farther, will this distance ever get easy for me? Maybe it would be easier if I went slower. But it was cold and I wanted to get home. I sped up just slightly the last three miles. But thank heavens for smartwool socks. At least my feet weren't freezing.