Slushy run

It was raining at my usual run time, so I waited a couple of hours before going this morning. Carol took the day off, so I was on my own. It was BRIGHT! I haven't run in full daylight for a while, and it has been raining/snowing all morning, so the sun reflected off of the road and practically blinded me! Good grief! The wood chip path at Liberty was slush covered and soggy making it a bit harder to run, and the slush was melting off of the trees above the path and sidewalk. I got so wet that I should have just ran at 6am in the rain! Since it was during work hours, I had my phone and had to routinely check e-mails that kept buzzing through. I opted for just one lap again because I didn't want to be gone too long during work hours, but I could have done two laps. I completed my 4.5 mile run at a pace of 10:43mpm. Not bad!

Taking it easy

We took it easy this morning since Carol hiked 12 miles over the weekend. I did absolutely nothing, and even managed to squeeze a nap in between my activities of nada and zilch. She was quite tired, and I probably had too much to drink yesterday. So, we took plenty of walk breaks and slowed our pace a bit. We still managed to do 4.5 miles @ 10:54mpm. It has warmed up significantly; it was 50* when we started. It's going to take a while to get used to this. I would prefer to run at 38* all of the time.....

I think that we're going to really cut back on the pace this week considering how tired we both were at the end of last week and all through the weekend. We need something to get us back in a place where we have some pep!

Make it end!

This run was everything that last week's 10-miler was not.

Carol and I had planned to run 13. We were going to go from work, up to the capitol, and halfway up City Creek Canyon. I confessed my fatigue first thing this morning because I didn't want Carol to expect a blistering pace from me. She was was pretty wiped out, so we started out slow. It just got worse from there.

13 miles turned in to 12.5 which turned in to 12. When we got the South Temple, we decided to bag the canyon and run the hills at the UofU. We turned east. When we got to 1300 East, we decided to bag the hills at the U. 12 miles now turned in to 10. We were taking frequent walk breaks, and slogging it out wasn't fun. We were miserable.

At some point, Carol looked at me and said "You can't drag me to 2100 South. I'm not doing 10." At the very next walk break, I said "How important is 10, really?" We turned and headed back to work.

Our final mileage was 9.28 @ 11:15mpm. It full-on sucked.

Both of us hydrated well yesterday. I did a bit of carb loading last night (with the right kinds of food, not beer). We each only ran 4 days this week (including today). So, what the crap?

There were some good parts of this run. 1) We never run up by the U, so it was really fun to look at all of the old houses - especially over by the Avenues. 2) My new hydration belt (which was free, by the way) was really comfy. I did get a bit of rubbing on my stomach, but that's because my stomach is so flabby. Otherwise, it sat nicely in the small of my back and the bottles were easy to access.

I'm so tired!

I had to pick Malcolm up at the airport last night, so I didn't get to bed until 10:30. Then, up again at 3:30 to do homework and meet the carpool by 5am.

Both Carol and I were tired today, and we have a 12-miler planned for tomorrow, so we opted for just a 1-lap Liberty loop. Thank goodness it was only one lap! Although we both felt like we were running through sand, our average pace for the 4.5 miles was still 10:45mpm! (We thought it was going to be closer to 11:15 or 11:20.) I think that what helped us was very short walk breaks, and a consistent pace. We didn't slow down or speed up hardly at all.

Oh, and I've lost two pounds as part of the Bring It! 2010 Challenge with Roch.

My new shoes make me fast

: This run felt great for both Carol and me, and it's reflected in our pace. We ran the Sugarhouse (2-lap) route. Totals: 7 miles at 10:24mpm!!! WHAT?!?!?! Yeah, we rock. I wore my new shoes for the first time. They are the men's version, so they are a bit wide in the box, but the cushioning felt great. I really like the fact that they were on close-out and therefore $40 cheaper than my usual shoes!

Woo-hoo! Another goal achieved!

Carol held off today due to a migraine, so I ran by myself. I've had three days off and wanted to push myself for speed today. I did the Liberty (2-lap) route, and I finished the 5.85 miles at a 10:44mpm average pace! Yeah, baby! I have finally finished that route with a sub-11 pace.

So far this year, I've done a sub-11 on the 1 & 2-lap Sugarhouse route, the 1 & 2-lap Liberty route, and a sub-11 10-miler! YEAH!!!!

Now, for a new goal.....

First 10-miler of the year

In preparation for Sapper Joe's, Carol and I have decided to run our long distances on Fridays, and we are determined to get some hills and elevation in - no matter that they won't compare to the 2000' gain of SJ. Today, we ran 10 miles which included two laps in Sugarhouse (with those nasty little hills) and up to 2100 East. We had to wander around a neighborhood in order to get the distance in, but we managed a total of 10 miles with hills at - get this - 10:47mpm pace!!!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? I rarely run that pace on flat, short runs! Holy cow!
Our minimum elevation was 4250 and our maximum was 4600. I burned 1375 calories. It was no Sapper Joe, but it's a start!