Same Time, Same Channel

Easy run + 5 hill sprints. Average pace: 10:38.

Hill Sprints:

10.90 sec @ 6:38/mi

10.88 sec @ 7:52/mi

10.90 sec @ 6:53/mi

10.79 sec @ 6:39/mi

10.24 sec @ 7:07/mi

Outside temp: 29°F

I had a bit of a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning even though I got to bed more or less on time last night. I guess I've just got to get myself back into the early routine after having fall break last week. But next week we fall back an hour so it will feel like sleeping in.

I did the level 3 shred this morning. I actually like level 3 better than level 2. It's probably a little bit harder but I like the level 3 exercises better. Level 3 has a lot of jumping (plyometrics) in it. We have a piano in the room that I do the shred in, and there is a metronome on top the piano. It's an electric metronome with an on/off switch on the back, not the old-fashioned weighted pendulum kind that my mom had when I was a kid. But I must have really been rattling the room with my jumping this morning because it turned the metronome on. It was pretty funny. I didn't want to stop to turn it off, but my son came into the room a few minutes later so I had him turn it off.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:13.

Outside temp: 35°F

Right after my husband left to drive my son to seminary I remembered that that same son had asked me several times last night for lunch money and I hadn't gotten around to giving him a check. I tried to call my husband to tell him to give the boy some money, but I heard his cell phone ringing when I called it so I knew he didn't have his phone. But then I remembered that the route I was planning to run would take me past the high school where they have seminary after about 2 miles. So I wrote a check and put it in my little pack and stopped in at the school and gave him the check during my run.

Mostly I was really fuzzy headed this morning. After I had dropped off the check I was running along daydreaming and suddenly got confused about where I was and thought that I had taken a wrong turn that would put me on a shorter route. So I turned around to go back and make the right turn. But after about 200 yards or so I decided that I really hadn't made a wrong turn, so I turned around again and went back the way I was originally going.

Later on I paused my Garmin when I stopped to wait for traffic and it took me several minutes of running before I realized that I had forgotten to turn it back on. So the total distance I've put down for today is partly a manual calculation. The average pace is what the Garmin says, which doesn't include the part I didn't time. I believe I was going faster than 10:13 during the part I didn't record, so my actual average pace was probably slightly faster than 10:13.

At one point in my run I could see a runner quite a ways ahead of me. I wondered whether I was going slower or faster than her and whether I would pass her. After a while I realized that I was getting closer and I did eventually pass her. But I guess she didn't want to be passed because she immediately picked up the pace and passed me. I stayed about 20 yards behind her for a little while after that, and then she turned off at a point where I went straight, so we parted ways.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:18.

Outside temp: 41°F, slight wind

Yesterday my upper back was a little sore (in a good way) from doing the level 3 shred on Monday morning, and my right arm was hurting from the flu shot I got yesterday. But I got up this morning and did the level 3 shred again before running this morning and that made me feel better, especially the sore arm.

I was running along this morning and I could see my shadow in front of me. All of a sudden I saw a shadow just over my shoulder through the corner of my eye and it startled me for a brief second and I thought that there was someone just behind me. But it turned out that it was my shadow. I had multiple shadows because there were multiple light sources at that point.

I had an idea about how to solve a problem with my daughter's halloween costume while I was running this morning. I've got to get some sewing done today. That's going to be tricky since I've got to work all day, I've got to do laundry, and I've got to go visiting teaching this evening. But I've got to get that halloween costume done so that we can go to the trunk-or-treat tomorrow night, not to mention trick-or-treating on Friday.

Tempo run - 2 miles warmup, 4 miles at faster pace, 1 mile cool down

Average pace: 9:29

Splits: 10:57, 10:49, 9:34, 8:38, 8:22, 7:55, 10:12

Outside temp: 45°F

I had a hard time getting going very fast on the third mile because it was almost all uphill. Miles 4-6, by contrast, were more downhill than uphill.

I got a little stitch in my side just before the end of the 6th mile. Does that mean I exceeded my lactate threshold or something like that? The stitch was gone by the end of the 7th mile.

I managed to get my daughter's costume finished last night. Now I've just got to carve pumpkins tonight.

Easy run. Average pace: 10:16

Outside temp: 43°F

I overslept by a half hour. I guess my body needed it. I had arranged for my husband to drive the boy to seminary, so I got up and did the shred anyway (I would have had time for that if I were driving to seminary) and then went on my run.

Yesterday I had a talk with a woman at work who has been doing triathlons and is now training for P.F. Chang's marathon in January. I told her that I'm running 6 days/week and am up to about 40 miles/week now and she was horrified. She said that that was too much and that I would get injured. She's working with a local coach and apparently that's the information she's getting from her coach. And she talked about a bunch of different online training plans and how they don't have that much mileage. I told her I was fine and that I could handle the mileage. I'm afraid I didn't defend the high mileage approach very well. But it will be interesting to see how she does on her marathon versus how I do on mine. It's not very fair to compare though, because she's probably 10 years older and at least 10 lbs. heavier than me, plus I have a lot more time to train since my marathon is in May.

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.