Easy run followed by 10 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace: 10:25.
Weather at 6:30 am: 33°F (above freezing - hooray!), 35% humidity, wind 17 mph avg, gusting to 23 mph, NW. The wind really didn't bother me for the first 2/3 of my run and then it picked up in a big way. My hill sprints ended up being into the wind. Fun times.
I was just glad to be back outside today. I can't believe I used to run on the treadmill every day (when I started running not quite two years ago). The 10 miles on the treadmill kind of did a number on my knee yesterday, but I iced it and used the foam roller on it last night, and it's not too bad this morning. It didn't bother me at all on my run.
I slowed the hill sprints way down from what I've been doing recently. The wind helped me with that. Here are my paces from the hill sprints: 8:19, 8:55, 8:38, 7:59, 8:03, 9:09, 8:23, 8:00, 8:28, 8:50.
The hill that I do the hill sprints on is on a trail that leads into the green belt that runs between my neighborhood and the middle school. When I was running the hill this morning, it was the time when kids are heading to the middle school and I encountered several of them on the hill. It's a good thing I don't embarrass easily. I must have looked like a complete dork. There were two boys walking down the hill while I was doing my last hill sprint and they didn't do as good a job of moving to the other side of the path out of my way as I would have liked them to. At least I didn't run into them.
The wind is really howling and shaking my house right now. | 