Same Time, Same Channel

Easy Run + 7 x 8 sec. hill sprints. Average pace on easy run: 9:14.

8:16 am, 65°, 47% humidity, wind 10 SSE.

I was very grateful for the opportunity to sleep in today. I could really use it after 3 solid weeks of early rising. But it was weird to get out and start my run in full day light. I felt kind of vulnerable somehow. I run in full daylight on Saturdays, but that's on the trail and it's more secluded.

Pace on the hill sprints was 7:13, 6:45, 7:07, 6:46, 6:54, 6:16, 6:09. It's weird how, except for the last one, I alternate between a faster and slower pace. I don't do it consciously.

A friend of mine from church is wanting to join the Army in order to attend nursing school. She needs to pass a physical fitness test in order to get into the Army, and right now she's not in condition to pass it. I agreed to help her get in shape. I don't have any kind of formal training or expertise in coaching/personal training. However, I have successfully taken myself from 200 lbs and sedentary to in pretty good shape. And most importantly, I'm free. So if anyone has any suggestions about what exercises I should have her do or how I should go about this, I'd appreciate it.

Fartlek Run. 8 miles easy w/ 8 x 40 sec. @ 10K-3K pace. Average pace: 9:07. Run followed by Shred level 1.

58°, 55% humidity, wind 3 S.

Just another early morning run in the dark. I ran my 8-mile County Line Road loop. I waited until after the 5th mile to start the fartlek portion. I programmed the workout into my Garmin this time, because I was afraid I would lose count otherwise.

At one point there was a bicyclist ahead of me who had stopped to fiddle with his bike. Just as I got to where he was, I started one of my fast intervals and he started riding his bike. He didn't get going very fast right away and I was actually running even with him for about 10 seconds. That was kind of cool.

I probably ran the intervals faster than I should have, but I was running them by feel, not looking at the watch because the "real-time" pace on the watch isn't that accurate, plus it's hard to see the watch in the dark and I didn't want to keep turning on the back light. In any case, my pace on the 40-second intervals was 6:56, 6:46, 6:52, 7:27, 7:14, 6:35, 6:41, 6:59.

Easy Run. Average pace: 9:21.

51°F, 82% humidity, winds calm.

I overslept by about 10 minutes this morning and it's thrown my whole morning off. I've got a busy morning. I've got to go spend some time training my Army-recruit friend before work.

Threshold Run: 2 miles easy, 15 min. @ 1/2M pace, 5 min. active recovery, 15 min. @ 10K pace, 2 miles easy. Average pace: 8:38.

Shred Level 1.

59°F, 55% humidity, winds calm.

I got up on time this morning but was a little late getting out the door because I spent too much time doing other things such as changing the laundry. But it was okay because I had asked Shaggy to walk to seminary. In fact, just as I finished my workout and was just a few houses away from home, I came upon Shaggy on his way to seminary.

I felt a little sluggish when I started and thought about scrapping the workout, but decided to do it anyway. I struggled a bit through the first interval, but managed to pull out an average pace of 8:08 (I was shooting for between 8:00 and 8:15). Perhaps it's worth nothing that that interval had an elevation gain of 158 ft. and an elevation loss of 107 ft. so it was slightly net uphill. I didn't really feel ready to go on the second interval after the 5 min. recovery, but I did it anyway. This interval had an elevation gain of 113 ft. and an elevation loss of 202 ft., so a pretty good net downhill, which helped me. I was aiming for 7:45 pace on this interval but pulled out an average pace of 7:37.

The problem with running a workout like this on the roads is that I had to stop and wait for traffic lights. I had a fairly long stop about 5 minutes into the first interval, and a shorter stop, probably less than a minute, with about 5 minutes to go in the second interval. I paused my watch during the stops. Perhaps it's cheating to have a complete stop and rest in the middle of a threshold interval, but I'd never make it home if I just made turns to avoid crossing streets.

Easy run. Average pace: 9:39.

61°F, 47% humidity, wind 6-10 sometimes SSW, sometimes N.

I had the feeling as I left the house this morning that I was forgetting something, but it took me a minute or two to realize that the thing I had forgotten was my glasses. They're not essential to my running; I run without them in the winter because my lower face covering causes them to fog up. So I continued on without them. I am more prone to seeing things that aren't there when I don't have my glasses on. This morning I was perlexed for a while by what turned out to be traffic lights reflected in a wet spot on the sidewalk (it was wet from sprinklers).

Boot Camp was cancelled this morning because the recruit was unavailable. It's a good thing, because I've had a freakishly busy morning without it.

In other news, I registered yesterday for a half marathon that I'm planning to run in November. This is the inaugural running of this race. They just posted the course description and it says this: "This is a hilly course that is 95% trail. It is scenic and challenging." Of course the name of the race is the Wildcat Mountain 1/2 Marathon. And it is sponsored by the Highlands Ranch Community Association (HRCA) and for most of their races the description says that the course is suitable to all skill levels, and then it's a wicked hilly course. So I'm not sure what to think when THEY say it's a challenging course. And I can't go check out the course because 1) The course map makes absolutely no sense to me, and b) Parts of the trail are not open yet (it's a new trail). What have I gotten myself into?

Progression Run. 12 miles w/ last 20 min. hard. Average pace: 8:53.

51°F, 51% humidity, wind 3 N, very cloudy and overcast.

Shred level 1.

We had a small group today. It was just me, Michelle, and Carly. We ran 5 miles with splits of 9:09, 9:12, 9:14, 9:16, and 9:21. Then Carly stopped and Michelle and I continued on for 4 more miles with splits of 9:23, 9:18, 9:26, 9:14. Then Michelle stopped and I continued on by myself for .44 miles at 8:55 pace, then I picked up the pace for 20 minutes. Up till now my progression runs have always specified a moderate effort for the finish, but today's workout called for a hard effort. My moderate effort for the last two Saturdays produced 7:54 and 7:53 pace, so my goal today was just to run hard and be faster than 7:53. I didn't have a more specific pace target than that. I ran the last 20 minutes at 7:29 pace.

We encountered a really big group of men and little kids on bicycles at one point. There were probably 30 or 40 people in the group. The strange thing about it was that there were no women. There was a lone man on a bicycle right behind Michelle and me and even though we moved over to give him room, he waited until we were past this big group of bicyclists before he passed us. As he passed us he commented that he was wondering where the mama ducks were, or something like that.

**Update**

I did Marion's yoga. Man, am I tight! Also, my kids kept coming in and interrupting me. I finally locked the door. I think I can maybe fit in yoga once/week, but I should probably do it more than that if I want to get rid of some of this tightness.