A breath of fresh air

Will and I ran the first three miles with Jade.  Today's run felt better especially the last mile and a half.  My hips have been achey the past couple of days, but during the run they felt great.  I don't know why they are stiff.

I did some fast miles with the jogger stroller.  Will and I enjoyed the weather (65 degrees) and the sunset.  Here are my mile splits:

8:11--mostly down hill with a tail wind

8:28--just rolling hills through the trees

8:36--mostly up hill with a (well, it felt ferocious) head wind

I still feel tuckered.  It's a good tuckered, though.  My right hip was bugging me during the entire run.  Definitely a muscle thing.  I am taking Shauna's advice and stretching more.

Jade ran six with Will and I today!  We ran another hilly route.  We tied Jade's record for her longest run.  She's one tough gal!  However, I hope I am not pushing her too much.  We plan on just doing five on Friday.  I am trying to think of the flattest possible course.  Well. . . not much is flat around here, but there is definitely less hilly.

Will was a pilot for Halloween.  We went trick-or-treating to three neighbors' apartments and Will got eleven peices of candy!  He didn't know what was going on, but we loved seeing our neighbors.  I am grateful for wonderful neighbors.  It's always nice to have friends near by.

It was 32 degrees when Will and I headed out the door.  I was grateful that Will feel asleep on the run because it helps me to know he's warm enough.  The run was relaxing even though in the beginning it felt like the run was going to be forever long.

Will, Jade, and I ran the flattest course possible.  There was a pretty good hill at the end.  My legs told me how tired they were, but the hill was over before I knew it.

To make the run interesting, I wanted to run some fast miles. During the first quarter mile, I decided to the fast miles on the trail instead of the track. Then while I was jogging my warm up miles, I decided for my fast miles to run 2.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back (to mix up the hills). Here are my mile splits.

8:11--I felt like everything was in slow motion. I decided to appreciate all my quarter splits that were under 2:10.

8:08--It was hard to breath. I think it was sunny and about 40 degrees.

7:45--This third mile was the flattest of the four. During this mile I finally stopped thinking about how cold my hands were. I also felt like I pushed this mile the hardest.

7:30--I guess I was finally warmed up.

The over all four mile time was 31:34. I was surprised. I beat the four mile timed run I did on October 13 by a minute. And it was a lot warmer then. Of course my last mile that day was straight up hill. Today the last mile was just hilly.

I ran 37 miles this week. That's a PR for me. Could I run 38 a week over the next five months and set myself up to run 2008 miles in 2008? I don't know. It would take a lot of work getting to indoor tracks when the weather gets really nasty. When the wind makes the temperature below zero, I am not sure I'll be running in that. Luckily Will and I have been able to still run in the early mornings. Will does well in 30 degrees. Eventually we will need to run later in the day. I wonder how cold is too cold for Will.

Sure 2008 in 2008 is possible. But, do I want to spend the time to do that?