PERFECT Morning!!!

Michael in the morning sun

What a great day!!!  Days like this morning make all those horrible -10 degree wind chill & 113 degree heat index days worth it ... well sorta!  Try 62 degrees, 3mph breeze, with only 65% humidity on for size ... beautiful Lee's Summit, MO baby!!!

Plus, I got to run a short speed workout with my lovely wife ... super Triathloner Michael of Slowly Tri-ing.  At about 5am we headed over to the Campbell Jr High School track which was resurfaced this past winter and is amazingly soft.  GREAT ... GREAT ... GREAT morning!!!

We both have the Hospital Hill 10K race this weekend so we were doing abbreviated speed workouts.  I'll do 10 or 11 miles tomorrow at marathon pace, but this morning it was 7 miles total with 4 Yasso 800's.  Nothing too major - just a shorter run to build a little speed the week before a race.  Following are my splits for this morning's workout ...

2 mile warm up ... 8:30/mile & 7:30/mile
Yasso 800 #1 ... 2:54 (5:48/mile)
Yasso 800 #2 ... 2:56 (5:52/mile)
Yasso 800 #3 ... 2:55 (5:50/mile)
Yasso 800 #4 ... 2:57 (5:54/mile)
2 mile cool down ... 6:50/mile & 7:15/mile

Wrapping up a great workout

I ran approx 400 meters with 2:30 rest between each one.  Best of all, my average heart rate was only 158 overall and most of the time during the 800's I was running a 5:30/mile pace and felt smooth and fluid like I could have finished around 2:45 without too much trouble.  I literally slowed down the last 100-150 meters to keep my time close to 2:59 for the 800.  Great workout!!!

That's the good news!  The bad news is my race weight for this week.  I'm trying to drop a couple of pounds before Saturday's race (mostly for psychological reasons).  But last night I had dinner with my son Gage, and the grandson Ryder, and we all had pizza.  I ate great all day and even had a salad for "MY FIRST" dinner.  But when he called and said they were coming over, we ordered pizza and I had dinner #2.  I have NO WILL POWER over pizza.  I'm a sucker for anything in a flat box with an Italian name printed on it! 

But, the boys and I had a good evening together, so that's the most important thing.  I just need to focus on the diet and try to lose a couple of pounds in the next few days.  We'll see how it goes.  Did I mention that today was a GREAT DAY!!!
... be great today!

Workout ... Legacy Track

            Course:  Legacy Community Center Indoor Track
                Miles:  12            
                Time:  1:29:11
        Avg Pace:  7:26/mile
         Workout:   Recovery Run
               Temp:  8 Degrees, Wind 15NW
          Calories:  1436
  Total Ascent:  0 ft
            Avg HR:  151 bpm

Miles this week:  56

Indoor track workout today ... nothing spectacular, but accomplished what I needed to.  Ran the whole recovery run on the track as opposed to the treadmill. We got 8" of snow last night and there was literally NO ONE a the gym ... which was amazing.  I had the whole track to myself the entire time.  It was great not having to dodge in and out of walkers.

Splits were ... 8:50, 8:09, 8:00, 7:37, 7:33, 7:19, 7:26, 6:30, 7:18, 6:46, 7:01, 6:32

Stopped 4 times for water, probably for a total of 1 minute so overall average was probably closer to 7:20.

Ran it a little faster than I needed to for a recovery run, but I kept my heart rate fairly low (below 150 most of the time) due to no elevation.  Run felt smooth and I never felt like I was stressing or pushing too hard.  I was happy to take advantage of the ghost town track!  The workout was fine, nothing great. 

I'll rest tomorrow for a big day of 28 total miles on Saturday.  I plan on running 22 on mine own (probably fairly slow) and then 6 with Madi as she gets ready for her first race ever, the KC Groundhog Run 10K the following weekend.  28 will be the most I've ever ran in one day ... I'm pretty pumped about the challenge and look forward to finding out how my legs & body respond.