Training in Montana

4 miles on the treadmill at the Y. Basketball practice has started so I took my 6th grader to the school then hit the Y before work. Warmed up at 5 mph for a couple minutes, then 6 mph until 1 mile, then upped it to 6.5 until 2 miles, then 7.0 until 3 miles, then 7.5 until 3.5, then 8.0 until 3.75, then bumped it up, and up, and up until I finished at 12.0 for the last few strides. Fun to get the legs to move at a 5:00 mm pace. Amazing to me how guys like Jake & others can run that fast for a mile or more.

Did 8 X 400 on the treadmill at lunch. Warmed up for 1 mile then did 0.25 at 9.3 mph and 1.0 incline. Repeated 7 times. On the last one I ran at 10.0 mph then added on another tenth of a mile at 11.0 mph.

Fun times. 

45 tempo minutes on the treadmill at the Y. Warmed up for 1/2 mile at 5 then 6 mph, then went to 7.3 mph (8:12 pace) with 1% incline for the rest of the time. It was tough but not too tough.

6 miles "fast" according to my 5K training plan. I ran outside today as the temp at the airport said 41, and it's close to the city so the temps are normally the same. I was running in town due to dropping off my son at BBall practice and I was tired of treadmills. Thankfully I wore my tights and a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve underneath and grabbed my thin hat and thin gloves, although I don't normally need a hat in the 40s. Driving into town I saw the temp readout on the Pepsi building and it said 30 degrees. What? 11 degree difference? That building normally has the temp right. After I saw that I noticed thick frost on all the car lots. Hmph. Billings is a 600 foot drop from the airport, being in the river bed of the formerly massive Yellowstone river, and I guess we have an inversion going on, minus the smog. Needless to say, I was a bit cold when I started out my run. My thumbs were frosty.

Started off about an 8:30 pace and kept that the first mile, then dipped to the lower 8s and then down to 7:30. I figured 7:30 was "fast" for me. I mostly kept that pace, dropping a bit lower sometimes and a bit higher than others, but it felt pretty good which surprises me greatly. I know I run much better in the cold but still, this was surprising. Maybe I can hold a 6:30 pace next Thursday.

When I'm downtown my Garmin always takes forever to acquire satellites, and I'm guessing it's because the Y is 1 block from the local TV station with its oodles of satellites. There must be interference. It ain't the tall buildings blocking the Southern sky, that's for sure.

AP: 7:46. Splits 8:45, 7:31, 7:32, 7:34, 7:23, 7:18.

Did my 10 mile loop today, but stopped 1/2 mile early as my left achilles/above my heel was hurting. I haven't read up on achilles injuries but I think I was just tight from running fast the day before. It's been a niggling bit for a few runs but I've been ignoring it. Got back and rolled it out and it felt a bit better. The next day it feels fine.

AP: 9:02