Running Chick

I had a nice seven-miler this morning.

I got up at 5:45AM (!) and was out the door by 6:40. I originally planned on running a route which would end near the Houghton park, making for a short walk home, but it was so windy outside that I changed my route after two miles and took the Denton Road loop instead.

M post-run strength training routine consisted of the following:

100 sit-ups on the stability ball (50 regular, 50 oblique twists)
50 push-ups with the ball
3 x 12 back extensions on the ball
3 x 12 squats with the ball
3 x 20 bicep curls with 7 lb weights
3 x 20 tricep curls with 7 lb weights
3 x 20 inner thigh squeezes with the ball

Weekly summary:
Run - 15.06 miles @ 10:33
Bike - 6.95 miles @ 8.9 mph

My five mile run tonight was uneventful. It was a scheduled tempo run where I was supposed to run slow for one mile, then around 11:00 for three miles, then slow for the last mile.

I totally blew that and just ran. Oh well, I had the best of intentions.

My feet have sufficiently developed enough callouses that I can run without tape. That's good because taping was a pain.

The last .75 mile of my run was down the left side M-26. I had a sharp pain on the inside of my left knee the entire way down. The sidewalk is apparently too cambered for my knee. I thought about switching sides, but there was too much traffic so I just kept on going. As soon as I got on a level surface, the pain went away.

Oh yeah..the title of my post. I was running some reports on my running and found some validation for all the hard work I've been doing on my running over the past year.

One year ago I ran 5 miles in 1:06 and my pace was 13:09 (ha, so slow!). Tonight I ran 5 in 53:20 and my pace was 10:39.

When I first started running around five or six years ago, my goal was to run five miles. I didn't care how long it took me, I just wanted to run that distance. It took me a while to get there, but I finally did it. But I was pretty slow. 12 minute miles were the norm, if I hit some 11's, I was feeling pretty zippy. I figured 10 minute miles were never going to happen.

Now, I'm churning them out regularly and sometimes, like on Monday, I hit the 9's. I think I may be a runner now, rather than a shuffler. And that is very cool.

Here's the entire report for 5 mile distances over the last year. Sweet validation, it is.

Three miles in 29:50

Mile 1 - 9:52
Mile 2 - 9:52
Mile 3 - 9:55

Kick ASS

Followed by 6-ish miles on the bike.

Socks - yellow Smartwool micros
Tape - none
Result - no issues