Chad's Runs

5 miles on the JRP.  Slow again, not in effort.  I think just a few extra miles a week is putting my body to work on endurance and taking it away from speed.  Or maybe I'm just getting old because my legs are a little tired.  Also my  Garmin ROBBED me.  I was at 8:33 pace on my 5th mile with 1/3 to go so I sped up to get under 8:30.  I'm sure I was at that pace and approaching the end.  I waited for my watch to beep but it didn't.  I passed the end of my run, kept running and looked at my watch.  It said I still had .04 miles to go and an average pace on that mile of 9:10!  I think my actual average pace for the entire run was around 8:55 or so.

1.5 mile warm up and .5 mile cool down.  4 1/2 mile repeats in between.  Times - 3:35, 3:32, 3:31, 3:35.  I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get those speeds based on my last 3 runs.  I also didn't want to get up or set my alarm last night.  I pushed through and I'm glad I didn't.  I still haven't missed any miles.  I missed a run last week but made up for it  on my next two runs.  This is good for me because I always blow off 2 or so runs a week.  But that is usually during high mileage weeks.  I'm trying to stick with it.

Wow, where did that come from?  9:20 warm up mile, 7:53, 7:53,  7:49 on miles 2, 3, and 4.  Those are three of the four fastest miles this year.  I felt good after the warm up mile and put it in cruise.  I was surprised when I found my pace under 8.  It felt like 8:30.  Last week what felt like 8:30 was actually 9:00.  I don't know what happened but I'll take it.  Average pace 8:13, 16 seconds per mile faster than my previous best back in July.

6 easy miles on the JRP.  The main street tunnel is flooded again!  There hasn't even been any rain!

Ran 4 at noon.  I'm not sure how hot it was but the sun was definitely out.  I run in the dark and the sun intimidates me.  I started out with a relaxed warm up mile planning on taking it easy for the next three as well.  So there I am shuffling along on mile 2 wallowing in self pity because the "hot" sun and noticed that I was barely breathing.  That didn't come out right.  I was running at such a wimpy speed that breath was barely more than a walk.  So I picked up the pace.  It wasn't very fast because my legs haven't run 14 miles in 3 days for a while and they were a little tired but it was more effort.  I still almost wimped out a few times, tempted to just shuffle along but I kept it up.  I found a guy to chase down as well and that helped.  Well, I put a crack in the "wimpy afraid of the sun" barrier and I'm pleased about it.  (and a little embarrassed that I'm pleased about being a wimp)  Avg 8:43