Running with Jack

On Friday after work with the temperature hovering around 0C/32F I warmed up and headed out the door for a 14K/8.7M run. I took the first kilometer nice and easy, 6:00/K (9:39/M) pace. I felt good, Thursday was a rest day, my legs felt fine, I had hydrated well the whole day (yep, makes a difference Dianna!) so I stepped on the gas. I brought my pace down to around 5:30/K (8:51/M) for kilometers 2-8, but then hit a bad path of ice along one trail through the forest. Several vehicles had been driving over the forest road for the last day or two and the normally dirt road was sheet ice. I was forced to slow down some, but soon found a small horse trail that paralleled the trail I usually take. It was still reasonable light outside so I darted down this path and made my way out of the woods and back onto my normal running route. By this time the ice had subsided and I picked up the temple the last 5k back home. My average pace for the roughly 14K run was 5:33/K (8:56/M), not bad for this time of year and just a couple seconds under my goal.

Most of Saturday I helped a friend of ours move some furniture. His wife is a physical therapist and is opening her own praxis, we had to go around and pick up various furnishings for the new office. Saturday night our same friends invited us to a local disco where a country-western band was playing. So between carrying furniture and some dancing I got in some cross-training.

Today I wanted to run, but my knees were a little sore from carrying furniture up and down stairs. So with that and the fact that I first got to sleep about 3 a.m. I decided to rest up today. I’m only about 3K behind in mileage for the week, so no harm done. Next weekend is a 32K/20M run on the schedule so the extra day rest isn’t bad anyway.

Unfortunately I gained a pound this week, too much celebrating last night – but we all need to let our hair down and relax once in awhile. Have a great week!