Training in Montana

5 miles this morning in a cloudy 72 degrees, but thankfully had a slight breeze. Legs still sore from Saturday's run, so felt great to stretch them out. GPS took a while to catch satellites so not sure of time or average pace, but it was healthy. Started out slow, high 9's and finished in mid 7's (downhill). Felt good.

Wildfire in the area, so awoke to a nice smoky morning. Could see the hills glowing last night, and a bit this morning. Don't enjoy the days getting shorter, but I do like being up before the sunrise. Ran downhill to start, kept a nice 8:30 or so pace - that's starting to feel like a good pace, especially on a slight downhill. Turned around earlier than normal as I wanted a bit of a different route. Overall, tried to keep it slow and mostly did 9:30s uphill. Felt like a good easy run. Sunrise was gorgeous - no clouds, so a broad expanse of orange and red along the Eastern hills.

AP: 9:14

Beautiful morning again with a blanket of clouds over the valley, made for a gorgeous extended sunrise. Did my 5 miles, this time a bit of up and bit of over on a dirt road. A mom and her twin fawns didn't seem to know what to do with me - they kept running ahead of me next to the fence, but for some reason wouldn't cross over. I turned around just as they decided to skedaddle across the field instead of risk crossing the road. A wise choice.

AP: 9:11. Felt like a nice run. I like doing 5 miles every time. I think 5 or 6 will be my new standard for a short run once the marathon training is over. That will help me stay in the high 30s to low 40s as my weekly average.

Two mornings ago I took my shirt off mid run due to the heat & humidity. This morning I wore a long sleeve shirt & had to cover my hands until the turnaround as they were freezing. Ah. 44 degrees at the start & at the end. It really was perfect running weather and my times showed it. I've run this same route quite a few times recently and I was able to run much faster on the way back than I have in the past couple months, and I think the cool weather had a lot to do with it. Anyhow, felt very good. Getting nervous for the marathon, even though it's still a month out.

AP: 8:28. Splits 9:31, 9:07, 9:26, 8:42, 8:15, 7:38, 7:36, 7:30.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111247242

Fairly cool this morning, 45 degrees, but I knew it would warm up. Cut out the toes of some old gym socks and made arm warmers. Worked great. Need to redo it to cover my hands a bit more - they were pretty cold until mile 5. Ran up the hill, up my favorite hill, then kept going for a bit to get some mileage, chasing herds of cows as I went. I chased 3 different herds today. Well, I ran, and they felt chased so they all ran away from me. It was hilarious. Turned and ran on a new road that I've driven before as I went to pick up Kaylene's car that we'd left at a mechanic friend's house. I shorted myself a bit on my 12 mile planned run as the friend said he wanted to leave at 8 am and I took his word for it. Turns out I woke him up and could've done the full 12. No worries. I'm feeling good, ready for this marathon. Now need to figure out how to pull off my 20 miler Saturday with a Fathers/Sons/Boy Scout campout in the morning and a football game in the afternoon. Guess I'll do an evening run. Yuck. Morning runs go so much faster.

AP: 8:37. Splits 9:35, 9:19, 9:08, 10:04, 9:19, 8:31, 7:53, 7:37, 7:33, 7:34, 7:51.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111796362