A Lending Hand ...

I wasn't sure how to title this week's (actually last week) run. I was going to call it The Power of Wind, but I decided against it.  Here's the reason. My Monday run was my 2nd 5 miler and I was feeling good. I carved out a whole minute from the week before's 5 mile run. Wednesday I migh have got out to run too soon after eating, but I pushed through some parts of the pain to run it in 45 minutes (approximately). Then Friday ... it was windy and cool. I had a rough first 2 miles. I was trying to get settled into my pace, but with the wind it was hard to get in a rhythm. I try to keep a certain pace, but with the wind in my face I tried to push harder to keep up my pace. However, then I get tired out more quickly and I have to slow down once I turn a corner. Well, around mile 2.5, I am running on the sidewalk along a busy road. Up ahead is an intersection and biking to the corner coming from a perpenticular direction, was a boy on a bike, maybe 4-5 years old. It seemed odd to see him out all  by himself. I look around to see if there is an adult around, but I was it and I was pretty sure this wasn't my child. I stopped to see what he was doing and he said he was going to the bank to see his Daddy. I knew I had past a bank about 3 minutes prior, but this kid was biking in the other direction. He crossed the street on his bike while a younger girl maybe 3-4 years old was running after this boy calling after him in that child language of a 3-4 year old that was a mystery to me. The wind was blowing and she was trying to tell me something, but what I assumed was her brother kept biking farther away I decided I would take this girl to her brother and find out where their parents were. So I took her little hand and we quickly trotted off after the boy trying to get him to stop.

We caught up with him and convinced him to turn around. I acertained from the girl that they lived in  the house on the corner of the street we crossed. So on the way back the boy biked off faster than the little girl and I did and he got to the intersection way before us. I tried to yell at him to wait for us to cross the street and he peddled right out into the street and crossed the street. After my heart calmed down I took the little girl across the street and back to what they said was their house. The little girl went in the back door while the boy stayed outside a little longer than she did, but I wanted to make sure he was inside the house before I left. Finally, he did go inside and out of a weird fear of having some strange person thinking I'm the weirdo holding hands with their kids I decided they were fine inside and I jogged off. In what was probably only 4-5 minutes, it put me in quite a hole.

The next mile I pushed it quite a bit to try to make up the time, but not thinking I could. A little mile 3.5 I turned to have the wind at my back. It really did feel like I was being pushed forward. My strides felt like that of a guy who was 6'6". It was pretty trippy. The last mile I felt good and it turns out I ran it in 45 minutes. The same time it took 2 days before. I was pretty amazed.

At any rate I felt good about offering a helping hand to the kids on the street. With that I gotta run.

Three's a Breeze ... not really

Not sure why I choose that title for this post. The phrase, "the third time's the charm" was what I wanted to say, but it didn't make sense as I was trying to say that this week I was able to run 3 times this week. Then I threw a rhyme in there just for good measure. ANYWAY, as the weather is slowly and surely (well maybe not that surely) warming up and with my first running event less than a month away I had to start running 3 times a week. Monday was the first run of the week and it was a dreary and very blustery day. The first 2 miles of my 4 mile run the wind was blowing right in my face. To make it worse, much of it was uphill. After recovering from the strenuous first 2 miles, it was a welcomed change to have some tail wind for the next mile and no real wind the last mile. However, I'm blaming the wind as to why I only averaged a 9:30 pace. All in all it took me 38 minutes.

Day 2 or Wednesday, I went out again. A nicer day with little to no wind. I was feeling pretty good. I could tell I was running better and had better all around feeling in the mechanics of my running. My feelings were correct as I got home and saw that I ran 4 miles (4.02) in around 34 minutes, which is an 8:27 minute mile pace. The best pace time thus far.

Day 3 (Friday) I had to bump up my miles to 5 so that I could get ready for my first 10K of the year. I had mapped out a good course that brought me home real close to 5 miles (5.05) However, I guess I didn't realize that at the beginning of mile 4 brought me running in front of a graveyard. Which isn't a big deal, but I didn't get out until much later than I had anticipated (around 9pm when I passed by). So it was dark. I'm not sure why, but the town didn't seem to think that this little stretch of road needed to have street lights. I suppose they thought, we can't have the dead disturbed all night with annoying street lights. I mean how could they sleep with a constant beam of light shining on their graves? To keep it light as I ran past, in my mind I started singing Michael Jackson's Thriller. "Cause this is THRILLER! THRILLER night, and no one's gonna save ya, from the beast about to strike ..."

After surviving the darkness and the graveyard, I finished my run with a time around 45 minutes, an 8:54 pace. not too shabby for my first 5 miler. I'm hoping this will go down the next week and my body gets more familiar with a 5 mile run. So this week will be only 5 milers and then I'll bump it up to 6 miles for the next 2 weeks. The week after that I'll run one 6 miler and then a 3 miler and then I'll run the 10K. I should be ready by then and my goal is to beat my time of 56:39 set last year. Gotta Run.

Trying to get into a Groove

I haven't done a good job keeping up on my progress over the past few weeks. I haven't quite kept up on my goal to run 3 times a week yet. By that I mean I haven't done it at all yet. I have run twice a week (up until this past week, but that was a special circumstance), and I'm starting to feel a little better about my running. Unfortunately with the colder weather I have been stuck running on the treadmill the past few weeks. It seems however, that the few times I have run outside I have been unable to run faster than a 9:15 minute mile pace. Here has been the breakdown since the last time I posted:

Distance   Pace    Time (min)
4 mi         9:15     37
4 mi         9:30     38
4 mi         10:00   40
3 mi         8:55     26:47
4 mi         8:56     35:44

The first 2 times are outside times and the last 3 are inside times. That 40 minute time for the 4 miler is not accurate. I had some issues with the treadmill becomig unplugged during the run and thereby erasing my time. So I guesstimated about how long it took. It'll be nice to be running outside again as long as the weather cooperates so I can settle into a groove. I think its finally started warming up, but now that its April I have the rain to contend with. The forecast for the week is rain just about every day. Anyone got a pancho? Gotta Run.