Morning Runs!

I'm proud of myself for being able to get up the last couple mornings to bust out some runs. I guess 90% of it was having Crystal there, because there was no way I was doing those solo! But the morning weather has been absolutely perfect this week - cool, 60-70's, so absolutely no complaints.

Tuesday night, did track work with Crystal. We met at the bank, jogged up and warmed up, then did the workout which was 10X30 seconds hard at 5K pace. Well, it didn't turn out that easy as we blazed through all the reps faster than we should have. Finally "woke up" about 4 reps into it, and felt a lot more in control. Got tired towards the end, but stride wasn't really affected. This track workout/fartlek goes by really fast, so we were done in no time. Total mileage: 6-6.5 miles - average splits ranged from 5-5:30/mile.

Wednesday morning, woke up bright and early for a run. Weather was perfect again - we did the customary out and back on the Glen Carbon trail. Felt a little tired starting out, but got in a better groove. About a mile into the run, my stomach started experiencing some awful pains, so knew the run was going to suck from then on. We turned around 2.5 miles out (my suggestion since I was hurting) and ran it in. Picked it up a little coming back, but felt decent all factors considering. Total mileage: 5 miles - averaged 8:26. After work, got in a 2nd run. Kind of hot outside, but much better than last week. Really sunny outside which made it a little more uncomfortable, but was fine. Got a quarter mile into my run, and came so very close to turning around since I was tired in general and very unmotivated (actually stopped and walked about 10 feet back towards home!), but quickly vanquished all evil thoughts and continued on with the run. Did out and back on the trail, which was conveniently very shaded. Felt decent coming back, and went faster than I would have liked overall. Total mileage: 4 miles - total time out was 30-31 minutes.

This morning, got dragged out of bed by masochist Crystal to do drills on the track. Warmed up (and woke up) by running to the track then getting in a lap, then busted out roughly 30 minutes of her new drill workout which consists of all sorts of new painful techniques such as lunges and skips to torture my very inflexible and tired body. As much as I whined and bitched through it all, was glad to have done it even though I am going to be paying for it the next day or 2. Was joined on the track by a large group that was doing what appeared to be a bootcamp of sorts - was nice to have the company. Weather was perfect again, and have been enjoying this although it is coming to an end soon I think :( Did a couple laps cooldown, then ran home. Total mileage: ~6 miles - guessing it was 8-8:30 on average.

Well in a perfect world, I would do a recovery run after work, but we'll see how I feel. I am already almost at 30 miles this week and right on schedule with where I want to be. Cardinals game tonight with my work group, then tentatively a morning run tomorrow. Marc arrives tomorrow night, so should be a pretty fun 4th of July weekend!