With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

4:33 am.  low 60's.  very nice weather!  Beautiful clear sky with lots of stars.  Only ran into one guard-cat who had his eyes glowing back at me from the headlamp.  Other than that, pretty uneventful. 

all but one mile was progression, so we'll call it that.  Overall avg pace 9:14.  Can't complain.  Saving my complaining for next Monday when I have 11 miles so I'll have to head out at 4:10...aarrrgggghhh.

sleep, SHred, RUn.  If I ran first, I could have a had a SLeep, rUn, SHred= SLUSH!

ran at 5:30.  nice and beautiful out.  easy pace- 10:20 avg.  A little black lab ended up following me the entire time, and was still camped outside my front door 2 hours later when I left for work.  No collar.  Cute as a button.  Anyone want a dog?

ahhh...speed work.

7 miles with 3x1600 @ fast pace & recovery inbetween.  4:50 am.

warm up mile 1-9:26 (faster than my normal warm up,  but I wanted a good base speed to start from

2- 7:52, 3-8:56, 4- 7:56, 5- 9:15, then stink of all stinky, .14 miles into my mile 6 speed work, I got that dumb-bunny cramp behind my knee where my knee brace is.  I couldn't run  or even walk. I took off the knee brace, then stopped & stretched in someone's driveway, then started back walking, then easy jog, then just ran the next mile at an easy progression.  So the .14 was an 8:08 pace, then the next mile was 9:11.  I did a speed mile after that to get my 3 speed sessions in.  It was a 7:39.  Then a cool down jog of 10:23 for .11 miles to get to the driveway.

I was able to run the last 2 miles w/o the knee brace on & w/o any problems. Maybe I need to leave it at home on speed sessions.  I don't know.  The physical therapist said I'd always need it, but what's the point if it's causing problems?  I wear the knee band/brace for "runner's knee." 

Total overall pace was 8:38.  I felt good running the whole time except for the leg cramp. 

Ended up having "one of those  days" at work.  I was like Odessyus on my Epic journey.  Got yelled at by the giant, stabbed in the back by Cyclops, & farted on by a troll.   I can't wait for the week-end to get here!

Slept really well (sorry RAD).  Run was nice- kind of just put it on auto-pilot and got it done. 

At one point I ended up running in a thick fog,  and the next thing I knew, there was a big white van 3 feet away from me parked on the side of the road (no houses around).  It really scared me- took me by surprise.  I was relieved when I finally got past the van & out of the fog. 

7+ mile bike ride after work.  rode west as the sun was beginning to go down and the sky was changing.  It was beautiful.  I thought how it was so much like the beginnings of the sunrises I get to see in the mornings.

funny little leg pain in my thigh jumped up & bit me when I tried running up stairs.  going to take Friday off and go easy on Sat instead of testing my luck with a 20 miler as planned.  I can do do 20 miles next week when the little pain is long gone.

Trying the foam roller....strange device. 

rest & roll (on the foam roller)

no pain in my quad this morning.  good news :-)

wyatt is sick with sinus infections & couldn't run. bad news:-(

so I got another hour of sleep :-) and ran alone :-(

I have a long run next Saturday and don't want to over-do it with my quad, so I just went at an easy pace and kept the miles lower than the suggested training guide, which has me doing low miles next week & big miles this week. 

avg pace 9:25.  splits: (it's like a rollercoaster...) 9:47, 9:32, 9:27, 9:26, 9:42, 9:32, 9:53, 9:16, 9:16, 8:58, 8:50.  walked for 1.3 miles after, and used the roller again. 

i didn't have the leg pain, but after using the roller, it seemed like I had achey muscles a little.  Is this normal as I get used to the roller, or just a coincidence?

Almost ran on top of a cotton mouth snake.  I don't know how, but I didn't see it till I almost stepped on it.  It's head was right on the white line I was running on.  Luckily, it's head was smashed it (fairly recently), but it was hard to tell at first glance.  I'm glad I slept in.  An hour earlier, and that snake might not have been dead yet. 

This is why I HATE having to run in the grass on the side of the road.  Sometimes with cars coming in both directions, I just have to do it, but when there's only one car on the road and it's coming toward me, WHY can't they give me a little space so I don't have to go in the grass? 

Actually, most people do.  It's just a few who don't move an inch.  And of those few, 89% of them are women.  Why is that???  Hhhmmmmmmm....