Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run + level 3 shred.

5:16 am, 28°F, 46% humidity, wind 4 SSE, waning crescent moon.

It was chillier than I expected it to be this morning. I was dressed okay, but my face got kind of cold because I didn't wear my face cover. I usually wear that only if it's below 20 degrees.

I normally do hill sprints on Mondays, but I skipped them today because I needed to get home to the bathroom. I thought about going back out to do them, but I ended up having to deal with kids. I got home at 6:40 and I asked my 18-year-old son, who was still in bed, what time he needed to be to school, because he doesn't have a regular school day today. He's got an honor orchestra thing all day. He said that he had to be there at 6:45. It would have been nice if he would have told me that last night. So he hurried and got ready and I drove him and his bass to school. I got him there about 7:05, but the bus that's taking the kids downtown was still there. He says that in the 3 years he's done this honor orchestra, they've never left the school on time. We've got to go downtown tonight for the honor orchestra concert and to bring the boy and his bass home. I dislike driving downtown and would rather take the light rail, but we'll have to drive so that we can bring the bass home.

I ran the County Line Road loop. The hills didn't feel too bad, but I wasn't going terrifically fast either. My fastest mile was the last mile because of my aforementioned need to get home.

AP: 8.11. Splits: 10:07, 9:51, 9:53, 9:44, 9:49, 9:29, 9:40, 9:11.

Medium-length run.

5:03 am, 29-32°F. 33% humidity, wind 10 S, little sliver of a waning crescent moon.

My plan recently has been 10 miles on on Tuesday, 8 miles on Wednesday, and 10 miles on Thursday. I've been struggling to stick 4 tempo miles within that Wednesday run after the 10 miles on Tuesday. So I decided to change things up but I wanted to keep the overall mileage the same, so I shifted two miles from Wednesday to Tuesday so that I have 12 on Tuesday, 6 on Wednesday, and 10 on Thursday, and then I'll put the tempo miles in the Thursday run instead of on Wednesday. That way I can have a nice easy day before the tempo run. And I have the option to make the tempo run longer if I want to.

To follow up on some issues from yesterday, my son agreed to bring the bass home on the train, so that's what we did. But we didn't get home until late (we probably would have been just as late if I had driven) and I had some stuff to do when I got home because I hadn't really been home all day, so it was hard to get up to run this morning after only 5 hours of sleep, but I did it anyway. Speaking of my busy day yesterday, have I told you want a wonderful person Michelle is? She knew I had a busy day, but so did she, and she knew I didn't have much time or a plan to feed my family, and so she made a pan of enchiladas for my family. Isn't she great?!

In other news, my 2nd son chose walking to seminary two days/week over carpooling, so the carpool is officially ended. The carpool was convenient for me, but this arrangement isn't much worse for me, since I'll still drive only 3 days/week (with the carpool, I was driving 2 days/week). So he walked to seminary this morning so that I could do a long run.

I ran two different 6-mile loops this morning, the 2nd one being my standard 6-mile loop, so I've got some slower miles in the middle of the run when I hit the 3-mile uphill portion of the 2nd loop, in addition to the slow uphill 3 miles at the beginning of the first loop. OK. It was all pretty slow. It took me a long time to finish this run.

AP: 9:38. Splits: 9:56, 9:59, 9:57, 9:29, 9:12, 9:23, 9:39, 9;42, 9;45, 9:31, 9:42, 9:22, 0.28 @ 9:31.

Very slow easy run + 10 x 10 sec. hill sprints + level 3 shred.

5:04 am, 39°F, 26% humidity, wind 6 SSE.

I ran really slowly this morning. I didn't realize while I was running that I was going so slowly. Oh well. It was supposed to be an easy day anyway. I did the hill sprints since I skipped them on Monday.

I was up too late again last night. I had a Relief Society thing until about 9:00 and then I stayed up watching The Biggest Loser. I probably should have just gone to bed and saved TBL for tonight, but tonight I have to go to an orchestra festival at the middle school. It seems like I've got something every night this week, I just can't quite remember what's on Thursday.

AP: 10:14. Splits: 10:18, 10:04, 10:06, 9:55, 9:55, 9:54. Pace on hill sprints: 7:11, 6:44, 7:22, 6:56, 7:16, 7:10, 7:34, 6:35, 7:18, 6:58. It's weird how on those hill sprints I alternate between a slightly faster pace and a slightly slower pace. I don't do it intentionally.

I tried to compose haiku in my head while I was running. Maybe that's why I ran so slowly.

Auntie Em writes poems
I want to write one too
How is my first one?

Let me try another.

Up too late last night
Dark to bed and dark to rise
Sleep is short and sweet

OK. That's enough bad haiku for now.

Tempo run. 3 miles warm up, 5 miles @ 1/2M - 10K pace, 2 miles cool down.

5:14 am, 30°F, 53% humidity, winds calm.

I wore double gloves this morning and got too warm a little ways into the tempo portion, so I took one pair of gloves off and put them in my jacket pockets. At one point, one of them fell out. They're not expensive gloves, but still, it's a pain to lose a glove. I may drive around a little later and see if I can find it.

AP: 9:03. Splits: 10:29, 10:30, 10:09, 8:06, 8:29, 8:10, 7:53, 7:57, 9:22, 9:22.

Incidentally, I took a 2-hour nap yesterday afternoon, which I desperately needed, but it made it a little bit hard to fall asleep last night.

Here's today's haiku, which I composed while running this morning:

Increase your cadence
Relax your neck and shoulders
Run you tall puppet

Tired and worn down
My knees a little achy
So no run today

OK, so I lied. Really I just changed my mind.

12:35 pm, 52°F, 28% humidity, wind 6 E, beautiful, glorious sunshine!

I decided to take my pasty white hairy legs out in the sunshine wearing shorts and no socks. I was thinking of doing an easy 4 this afternoon (and I mean easy) and I thought it was a nice day for the VFFs. It was probably a little foolish since I've only run in the VFFs twice before the furthest run was 1 mile, I decided do do the whole 4 miles in the VFFs, thinking they would force me to employ a running form that was easier on my knees. It was harder on my calves, as I expected. The left one is feeling just a little tight. I'm going to go roll it.

I was slow. I guess I didn't speed up my cadence enough to compensate for the drastic reduction in the length of my stride from what I do in shoes.

AP: 10:08. Splits (HR in parentheses): 9:58 (132), 10:09 (142), 10:02 (140), 10:22 (139)

Also, this morning I did P90X yoga with the incomparable Michelle and another friend that we're trying to recruit to our Saturday running group.

Long run.

6:35 am, 36-44°F, 16% humidity, wind 4 SW.

I went up and looked at the trail yesterday and it looked good, so we decided to run on it today. Michelle was planning on 6 miles and I was planning on 16 and it's a little disheartening to still have 10 miles left when the others are finished. I realized that it was about 5 miles from my house to the rec center where we meet to run on the trail, and so I ran there this morning, ran with Michelle and Ali on the trail, and then ran back home.

It turned out that I didn't look at enough of the trail yesterday. It turned out to have a lot more snow and ice on it that I expected. It was slick in spots. Unfortunately, Ali twisted her ankle when we had a little less than a half mile to go, so we walked the rest of the way back. I hope her ankle is okay.

It turned out, as I figured it would, that running to the rec center was easier than running home from the rec center. Running there is gradually downhill all the way and I had the wind behind me. Coming home was gradually uphill and into the wind all the way.

AP: 9:46. Splits: 10:10, 9:46, 9:24, 9:29, 9:25, 9:54, 9:52, 9:58, 10:14, 10:23, 9:49, 9:52, 9:40, 9:23, 9:23, 9:37.