Happy Valentine's Day!

Protein timing of consumption in runners, the Harry Potters characters of running groups, Millrose Games this weekend, fast couples, USA XC Championships this weekend, XC in the Olympics?, 8 men break 60:00 in the RAK 1/2 Marathon, funny Jenny Simpson commercial, Mary Cain reddit summary, new Brooks headquarters, and funny gambling story.

Monday, February 10th - 8 miles.  Crystal and I ran in Forest Park after work.  We did the Wydown loop and added some extra in Forest Park to hit 8, since we were so close anyways for our 60 minute run.  It was pretty cold outside, but we got started earlier than usual (thank you traffic-less I-40!), and the sun is staying up for another 30-45 minutes which helps things.  Legs felt like poop, but we picked it up once we got back in the park.  I really enjoy the Wydown loop, probably because there are so many scenary transition points in the run and you get a little bit of everything.  Ran into Hatcher during our last couple miles, and he was hauling @ss - can't wait to see what he races this spring!  1:03 and some change, I believe.  I got a wonderful surprise when I got home - my new Garmin 620 arrived early!

Tuesday, February 11th - 6.5 miles.  New Garmin run with Crystal!  Sidewalk/road conditions were still crap with the cold and snow, so we ended up doing neighborhood loop for 50 minutes.  Very repetitious, but the good conversation and cold made everything go by fast.  A few black ice spots, but we got it done with no damage.  Crystal tested both watches to see if they were accurate (pretty much so), and was happy with my initial run with the new watch.  7:39 avg. pace according to Garmin.

Wednesday, February 12th - 10 miles (2 up, 8x800, 2 down).  Because of the snow, the track was unrunnable so we headed over to a loop that Crystal wanted to try in the city.  The loop was basically the perimeter of Lafayette Park, which is a big rectangle with some hills and a nice bike lane for runners like us to take advantage of.  The park perimeter is 0.90 miles, so each side was basically almost a quarter mile - very good for doing repeats on, and scenic with some local businesses and houses in the area.  The workout was 8x800 at a little faster than tempo, with a quarter mile jog in between, so I fiddled with the new watch and set up the parameters of the workout, since you could literally set everything up.  The nice part is I typically have to press buttons everytime I'm down and monitor my watch constantly, but this time I literally just had to press the start button to start the workout and the stop button to finish the workout - 5 second beeps at the end of each rep and rest (I LOVE this watch!).  Anyways, the goal splits were 3:04-3:10 pace, and push the last 2 if I felt ok, and it went as well as I could have asked.  Another cold day, but hit my splits.  My legs were tired going in, and was pushing at the end (was pretty much blind to my performance since I didn't have much visibility to the mileage (Garmin was totaling total distance including rest mileage)), and was very pleased to see some consistency when I saw the results.  Even more happy considering one of the sides of the park (Missouri St.) was basically straight uphill, so was really pushing to get up on that side.  2 mile cooldown with the group (Dickson and Craig showed up), and a well deserved post workout dinner at Square One Brewery afterwards.  2 mile warmup was 15:04, 800 splits were: 3:00, 3:06, 3:04, 3:05, 3:05, 3:04, 3:01, 2:58, 2 mile cooldown was 17 something.

Thursday, February 13th - 5 miles.  Ran in Forest Park with Silker and Huelsmann after work.  Traffic was killer, so got in 3 miles with those guys before having to bail and head back.  Legs felt like complete garbage.  Went and saw my buddy, Dr. Frye to get my back adjusted since it's been acting up a lot.  He definitely knows what he's doing, and got a quick adjustment and definitely felt better afterwards.  8 minute pace overall.

Easy running tonight in the snow (yes, again).  Running the Chocolate run this weekend, then basic mileage on Sunday.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!