Training in Montana

Went to the river with my family after dinner and played around a bit. Beautiful day - 80 or so. I had a home teaching appointment nearby so instead of making the family stop what they were doing and driving me there I decided to walk. I hadn't run those roads in a while so I figured it would be 1 to 1.5 miles. Turns out it was more like 2.5 as it took me over 30 minutes walking fast. Great chance to stretch my legs after a long weekend.

4 miles on a warm morning. 52 at 6 am - nice! I felt a bit sluggish from a lot of miles this weekend but stretched out the legs a bit and they were fine. 

AP: 8:38 

6 miles this morning. Pushed the pace, still hard on the uphills. Lost a few minutes over my previous fitness.

AP: 8:20 

6 tired miles today. Legs felt dead the entire way. I'm not surprised as I haven't been getting enough sleep plus I pushed it yesterday. Walked a few times & powered through the run.

AP: 9:06 

Taking the day off yesterday from running was awesome. My body was tired. I was still exhausted last night and could've gone to sleep before 10, but didn't. Ended up having a hard time going to sleep but I didn't worry about it as I knew I was laying down and still resting. Got up at 5:15 for my long Friday run and somehow didn't get out the door until 5:45. What up with me? I am so slow sometimes. Heard the wind howling and knew a storm was coming in. Checked the radar and sure enough, we had rain all around us. Brought my rain jacket along and glad I did. Wore shorts & t-shirt as it was 54 degrees. Should've gone with long sleeve shirt as it was windy and the temps were dropping. After 2 miles of getting pelted sideways by rain I put on the jacket and wore it for the remainder, and it was nice to have. The wind was brutal. Planned to do 10 miles, but at the 3 mile mark I knew I had a mile or more straight into 30+ mph gusts and with my late start knew I couldn't afford it. Turned around and ran North/South more than normal, but I did get in 9 miles. Was going to turn around and only get 8 but had the umph to keep going so I did. Got home later than normal but it all worked out okay. Supposed to have rain all weekend so tomorrow's 18 is going to be awesome.

AP: 8:50 

18 miles today, 9 yesterday, and all of them in wind gusts of 30+ mph. Ugh. Today there was no rain for me, but a lot of wind on a very exposed country road. I went out knowing that the wind would suck, so at least I was prepared. It was 39 degrees but 27 with wind chill so brought 2 pairs of gloves and after 3 miles I wore both pair for the remainder of the run. I didn't know if I'd go 18 outdoors so I took off seeing if I could go out 9 miles. If it was too bad I was going to turn around at 5 and run the rest at the Y. I was stubborn and kept going as the last couple miles had a little bit of wind break. Anyhow, it was probably the gnarliest run I've done to date. By the time I got home I was pretty wasted. I think my 18 was probably more like the effort for 22-24 as I used so many muscles trying to stay upright in the wind.

AP: 9:32. Elevation gain 1235 feet. I walked a lot today.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/172695226