Training in Montana

6 TM miles at Noon at the YMCA, in between two other guys who ran about the same distance. we ran stride for stride for about 50 minutes. That was interesting, and kind of fun. 

Did a progression run, started at 5.0 for a little bit, then 6.0, 6.5 for 2 1/2 miles, then 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, and ended at 10.0 for just a short little burst. Felt great. Ran at 2 % incline the first 4 miles. Did 7.5 at 5% incline for 1/2 mile. That was tough. Dropped incline to .5% and speed to 6.0 for a quarter mile after that to slow down my breathing.

Cold this morning, 14 degrees. No breeze but it was a facemask-over-the-nose sort of morning. I tested out my new 1/2 zip pullover loft jacket and it was pretty darn nice. A bit too warm in the arms (they were drenched afterwards) but my mid section was comfortable, and it has a butt warmer which was very nice in the end (buh dum dum). 

Did 5 miles at whatever effort made sense. After yesterday's workout I drained the tank a bit but not all the way. A good run. Got a nice effort up a hill at the turnaround point.

AP: 9:04 

4 down & up miles this morning. I just went to the eye doctor & had my eyes dilated so I can't read what I'm typing. If there are typos or something doesn't make sense, I ll fix it when I can see. 

So the other day I was thinking about my hill running, and my desire to do well with the 50K, and it dawned on me that the road I live on is a steep hill, but I never run it. Decided to run it today and it will become used more often. It's only a mile & a half to the bottom of the road, so I ran another 1/2 mile to make it a solid 4 on the turn around. Great paces down the hill, and nice and steady back up. It's at least 400 feet of climb in 1.5 miles with 3 solid stretches of up. I will make this part of my routine. Would be nice to end some long runs with this brutal uphill at the end.

AP: 9:01 

Planned rest day. I was thinking about getting up and doing 3 miles as a rest, but decided to sleep another 45 minutes. It felt good.

I know that running is back as a passion because I was driving home last night, up a pretty good hill, and I couldn't wait to get back running that hill. It's been a while since I ran really long. I'm looking forward to it. 

6 miles this morning in a steady brisk wind. 24 F temps, 17 mph wind, 11 degree wind chill. My hands got cold but the rest of me was okay. I need some new gloves with wind shields on the top and breathable on bottom. I just don't want to spend $30-40 on a pair, so I make do with a pair of cotton running gloves I got at SGM 2011 combined with a pair of thicker cotton gloves I bought at Harbor Freight. They work well on nearly every day.

Didn't feel completely fresh today, but not too tired either. Tomorrow's a busy day with the first kid bball game at 8 am so I'm not sure when I'll get my run in, but I'll do it. Might be a treadmill run in the morning. Happy to have hit the 20 mile mark on Friday. I think it's been a while.

AP: 8:42

12 TM miles at the end of a crazy day. Would have run them outside in the dark & wanted to, but would rather spend the time with my kids watching movies. Saw "Here Comes The Boom" and it's a surprisingly good show! Very funny, great action, & Selma Hayek is easy on the eyes. It ended with a tough 3 miles to go so we started Nacho Libre. Almost identical plot, chubby athletic funny front man, hot Latina he's trying to seduce. Fun shows.

The last 3 miles were mentally very tough, so I imagined myself 3 miles from home & ran my normal route back. Worked okay.

6.6 mph, 2% incline for just about all of the 12 miles. Good long run for now, good week for me.