Training in Montana

Tough to wake up this morning. Got to bed by 10:30, which is good for me, alarm for 5:30 am, and I just laid there for a while. I kept rolling over to check the clock, and finally convinved myself to roll out of bed a little after 6. Got 3 miles in with the high beam on my headlamp. Tough to revert to darkness when I'd been able to ditch the light the past couple weeks. 37 degrees and some wind, and temps falling. Just a short little run. Better than sleeping, right? Right? Plan to hit BC at noon.

AP: 8:56

Noon: Went to Boot Camp. Holy crap, Chantelle hates Mondays. After every station we ran stairs & 1 lap around the indoor track (1/17 mile) so kept the HR very high the entire 45 minutes. I am exhausted. I think my legs are a bit tired still from Saturday's hard push up and down the hills, plus this switch to Daylight Savings Time is messing with my body. I will sleep very well tonight.

Tough to wake up this morning, again. Darn DST. Nearly kept sleeping, but I'm turning over a new leaf and not going to take rest days when I'm tired. I'll go slower and maybe not as far, but miles are miles and better than sleeping. I always take 2 rest days and that's enough.

Fairly cold this morning, 24 F with 12 mph wind, so 13 F wind chill. I was warm enough but I'm ready to be sweating like a madman wearing only a tank top. Bring on summer! Supposed to be 65 F tomorrow, and I'm okay with that.

My feet were dragging this morning. If I was feeling better I would've done 6, but knowing I was tired I went out to do 4 (one more than yesterday) but knew I'd be able to talk myself into doing 5. Once I got to 5 I thought about doing 6, but didn't want to push my luck. 5 is a good number for tired legs. As much as I dislike running with a headlamp, the stars were gorgeous. I had to stop a few times just to stare at the sky.

AP: 9:09.

That new leaf I turned over must've kept turning, cuz the alarm clock goblins got me this morning. I switched the alarm to 6 as I was only planning on 4 miles, and when 6 came around I turned off the alarm and lay there a minute...or 28. By that time, it was no sense in waking up to run as the family arises at 7 so I stayed supine. At 7:15 my wife rouses me with a mumble about "we both slept in". Oops. Note to self: when alarm goes off, roll out of bed and hit knees to floor. Tough to sleep in that position. Not impossible, but tough. Boot Camp at Noon.

Noon: Brutal Bodacious Beads-of-Sweat Boot Camp. Excited to do BC today as I slept in earlier and Bam so eloquently pointed out how the loss of a workout means the loss of my entire racing season. C'est la vie. The outside temps improved greatly today, 69 F, so at BC the doors were opened and we ran a lap around the block to warm up. Hard effort, finished about 5th or so (not that it's a race) and felt really good. Rest of the exercises were good but tough, and I had energy. Mid workout she stopped us and we ran 1 more lap around the block. Tougher as we'd done some leg work, but I maintained a solid pace and finished in the top of the pack again. 15 more minutes of exercises then at the end we did yet another lap. Much tougher, tired legs, breathing very hard, but still kept at the front of the pack. The guy who had been leading the other two laps fell way back and I got a little thrill out of that. It was a sweatfest as even my wrists were sweating during the abs part at the end. Yikes.

Really good run today. Temps 44F so only needed tights, a thin pair of gloves, and a headband to cover the ears. Legs felt surprisingly good. Kept a good steady pace the entire way.

Approx Splits (from memory) 9:30, 9:00, 8:56, 7:56, 7:46, 7:42. AP: 8:27

6 miles this fine morning. 46 F outside! Fantastic. Only wish it would stay, but alas, it won't. Switched up my run a little bit, so at about 2.25 I turned left which drops down a bit then back up to the original height by 3 miles, so turning around it again drops down and a nice steady incline back to the original height. A good hill workout. On the return hill I was surprised to see I kept it under a 9 minute pace.

Left outer calf got strained slightly during yesterday's run. Nothing serious, but odd. I don't recall feeling that muscle before.

AP: 8:52

Did 14 this morning. 14 is quite a bit further than 10, which is what I've been doing a lot of on weekends due to time. I haven't run this far in a while & after doing decent miles the past couple days my legs were tired. In fact, I did a marathon worth of mileage the past 3 days. Walked twice the first 3 miles, then hit my brutal hill & my conquering spirit arose. Ran up it all the way, and much more. Walked a couple more times, just for a bit, before the turnaround, then no more breaks until home. Up some of the hills my legs felt almost numb towards the tops and I kind of enjoyed that. Feeling good about my base.

The warm streak ended earlier this morning. 25 and foggy, very slight breeze. Took my neck gaitor just in case, and on the way back I needed it. Seems to be the case on early morning runs on this route. The way up I sweat uphill, but the way back is downhill and not as much heat. I wore the gaitor the last 5 miles home and glad I had it, or I would've been chilled.

Total Time 2:12:12 (cool). AP 9:12