Same Time, Same Channel

Day of rest.

I had to get up early this morning despite it being a day of rest because my son had to be driven to work at 6:30. At least that gets me to church on time. I had to conduct choir practice after church and that stresses me out to no end. We have to sing in church next Sunday and I'm not sure we're ready. My husband is a much better conductor than I am, so he's giving me occasional lessons, but I'm not a very talented or willing student. I was kind of keyed up after choir practice, but managed to relax and get a nap later in the afternoon.

I'm excited to switch to running 6 days/week starting tomorrow. I went to REI last night and bought a headlamp and a reflective vest.

I started sneezing and having a runny nose after the race yesterday, but I think it's probably because most of the race was through a green belt that was full of weeds. I've still had symptoms today, but not as bad.

Easy run.

I went to bed fairly early last night but had a hard time getting to sleep on account of the nap I took yesterday afternoon. Then I had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. I hit the snooze alarm once. It's a good thing I had to drive my son to seminar or I probably would have hit the snooze alarm several more times.

I didn't really feel like I wanted to run today when I first got up, but then I reminded myself that I always feel better and in a better mood if I run in the morning.

I didn't wear my new headlamp because I didn't get out running until after I dropped my son off and by that time it's starting to get light. As the days continue to get shorter I'll start using the headlamp.

It wasn't too cold this morning. I had an average run.

Average pace: 10:34. Splits: 11:09, 10:35, 10:20, 10:13

I was just comparing my new PR from last Saturday's 5K to my previous 5K PR because the new PR is only 13 seconds faster than the previous PR. However, the average time for the previous race (where I finished in 29:01) was 29:16, and the average time for last Saturday's race (where I finished in 28:48) was 34:56. Last Saturday's race was very hilly and it was windy.

My plan was to do get up extra early, do the shred, then drive my son to seminary, then run. However, I was up too late last night dealing with kid's needs, so I talked my husband into driving the boy to seminary so that I could sleep an extra half hour. So I got up and did the shred level 1 with 5 lb. weights and then ran. I'm trying to build up the number of push ups I can do and the shred level 1 has push ups in it. I managed to do 11 on my feet on the floor, then the next time on push ups I did them standing, leaning against a ledge.

I headed north from my house and whenever I do that I start faster than I intend to because it's down hill. Also, I was warmed up from doing the shred.

Average pace: 10:07.

Splits: 10:06, 10:25 (long uphill in this mile), 9:49

Saucony Omni 6: 45.5

I had another really busy night last night and didn't get to bed on time, so I'm running on 6.5 hours of sleep for the second day in a row. Fortunately, the rest of the week looks a little better. I should be able to get to bed earlier tonight.

Good, uneventful run this morning. I saw a handful of other runners, which is always nice.

I've been going to a yoga class at work. Today is the last class of the current 6-week session. I don't think I'll sign up for the next session because some of the yoga poses seem to irritate my hip. I think I'll take a break from yoga and maybe get back into it later. And now they're going to offer a cardio kickboxing class at work. They're having a free trial class of that today and then there's a six-week session of that starting in two weeks. I'm going to give it a try today and I'll probably sign up for the six-week session, though I'll be out of town and miss the first week.

I had a little trouble figuring my stats for today because I wore my Garmin on a walk with my friend yesterday and forgot to reset it, so I had to subtract that walk from my total amounts to get the amounts for today.

Average pace: 10:46. Splits: 11:13, 10:48, 10:27, 9:54, 9:54

Noon: 40 minutes of cardio kickboxing - I'm very uncoordinated and had a little trouble keeping up with the instructor and I'm sure I looked like a fool.

PM: 1 hour of yoga.

I'm really worn out now.

I was a little late getting out for my run this morning. I got up on time, but then I did the 30-day shred level 1 with 5 lb. weights and changed the laundry and spent some time talking to my husband and generaly dawdling. But I did finally make it out.

Today  marks the first time I have run 4 days in a row. Of course tomorrow's run will make it 5 days in a row and Saturday's run will make it 6 days in a row.

As a result of getting out a little later it was a pleasant temperature this morning and I was able to run in shorts and a t-shirt.

Average pace: 10:14. Splits: 10:47, 9:56, 10:05.

I ran roughly the same route that I did on Tuesday, but in reverse. On Tuesday the second mile was the slowest and today it was the fastest because there's a gradual but long hill in the middle of the run and it either speeds me up or slows me down depending which direction I'm going.

Saucony Omni 6: 48.69

It was a nice run this morning. I felt pretty good. I made a conscious effort to slow down several times because I wanted to rest up for a 10 mile run tomorrow. At one point I was approaching the high school and there was a boy up ahead of me walking to school. As I got closer I noticed that he was smoking, so I crossed to the other side of the street to avoid him.

I realized recently that I've had this notion that I always had to run first thing in the morning instead of later in the day. This is fairly true for weekdays, but my race last Saturday, which was at 12:30 pm, caused me to have this epiphany that I can run later in the day on Saturdays.

I've got to take my daughter to her swimming lesson tomorrow morning. If I want to run before that, I've got to get up really early, which I'd rather not do on a Saturday since I do it every other day of the week. It occured to me that I could run after her swimming lesson and then I won't be worried about time.

Another thought I've had is that before I figured out the philosophy on this blog, I used to run 4 days/week and I ran every run pretty much as fast as I could. I would find myself dreading each run because I knew I would go out there and kill myself. Now that I've backed off and am running slower, even though I'm running more total miles and running more days per week, I look forward to each run.

Todays stats:

Average pace: 10:19. Splits: 10:28, 10:41 (up a long hill), 10:07, 10:01

I've decided I much prefer running early in the morning to running in the middle of the day. It was hot and I spent the whole time wishing I had chapstick and my water bottle ran out. Getting up early is totally worth it.

I got up a little later than I had intended this morning, but I guess that's a good thing since I went to bed late. I did the level 1 shred with 5 lb weights and then took my daughter to swimming lessons. Then I hung out at home for a little while until it was time to pick up my son from his orchestra rehearsal and then I went on my run. I didn't get out until about 11:45 am.

I had a few short stops during my run because I had to wait for traffic lights. I always paused my Garmin while I was stopped. There's sure a lot more traffic around this area at noon on a Saturday than at 6 am on a weekday.

The route was very hilly. Of course the only way I'd have a flat run around here would be if I ran laps around the track. So I'm including ascent and descent numbers with my split times today just for fun.

Average pace: 10:20

Splits:

Mile 1 - 10:21 (up 115 ft, down 139 ft)

Mile 2 - 10:13 (up 117 ft, down 107 ft)

Mile 3 - 10:39 (up 122 ft, down 66 ft)

Mile 4 - 10:17 (up 119 ft, down 76 ft)

Mile 5 - 11:01 (up 144 ft, down 46 ft)

Mile 6 - 10:03 (up 76 ft, down 100 ft)

Mile 7 - 10:07 (up 206 ft, down 209 fit)

Mile 8 - 10:17 (up 73 ft, down 112 ft)

Mile 9 - 10:32 (up 108 ft, down 85 ft)

Mile 10 - 9:58 (up 82 ft, down 138 ft)

And of course the whole thing is done at between 5800 and 6000 feet.

I'm looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow. Of course I have to get up early because we have choir practice at 8:00 am and then we're singing in church. It's my fault that the practice is that early because I'm the choir director. We normally meet at 8:15 (church starts at 9:00) on the days we sing, but we're not quite as prepared as I'd like to be and so we're meeting a little earlier for practice. I don't think the choir is too happy about it.

 Saucony Omni 6: 58.88