Last night's run was a short 3.5 miles. The night before some thunderstorms had rolled through at midnight which woke up my daughters who in turn woke up mom and dad. I felt that lack of sleep as lead legs the next day.
Tonight's run was 6.2 miles. Since I slept better last night, the miles clicked by a little easier. It was my first time ever to run in compression shorts. I think I liked it. I definitely liked the fact that my music player wasn't bouncing all over the place.
Next up is a rest day tomorrow. Yay! Saturday will be my long run for the week. The plan is for 10 miles again. Sunday will be 4-5 miles of forest trails. Next week the plan is to repeat this week.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Running With the Fireflies
Last night's run turned into an adventure. In a good way. The first 4 miles or so it was just me, the crickets and the fireflies. Lots of 'em. They were everywhere. It was a really cool experience to have that many fireflies blinking away as I ran by. One meadow looked like it had Christmas lights strung through it because of all the flashing.
At one point I treed a raccoon. All I could see was his eyes glowing back at me in my headlamp and the unmistakable tail silhouette. As I got closer it climbed higher in the tree. No growling at me thank goodness. Those raccoons are not the nicest critters.
Later my headlamp revealed a skunk crossing the path in front of me. I slowed down and gave it lots of room. The last think I wanted was to get sprayed. The little guy (gal?) slunk off into the underbrush and disappeared. Whew.
Then came the last two miles. All the fireflies suddenly disappeared. What?! Then the lightning started. Oh great. Nothing gets your feet moving like lightning. I turned an easy run into a tempo run and made a beeline for home. Just as I got home the sky opened up and it started to pour and thunder. Wow. That was close. I don't mind rain, but lightning makes me nervous.
Have you had any running adventures lately? Have a great day!
At one point I treed a raccoon. All I could see was his eyes glowing back at me in my headlamp and the unmistakable tail silhouette. As I got closer it climbed higher in the tree. No growling at me thank goodness. Those raccoons are not the nicest critters.
Later my headlamp revealed a skunk crossing the path in front of me. I slowed down and gave it lots of room. The last think I wanted was to get sprayed. The little guy (gal?) slunk off into the underbrush and disappeared. Whew.
Then came the last two miles. All the fireflies suddenly disappeared. What?! Then the lightning started. Oh great. Nothing gets your feet moving like lightning. I turned an easy run into a tempo run and made a beeline for home. Just as I got home the sky opened up and it started to pour and thunder. Wow. That was close. I don't mind rain, but lightning makes me nervous.
Have you had any running adventures lately? Have a great day!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Week in Review
Sorry I've been MIA this week. Life has just been too busy to allow for blogging.
In all this past week was the best running week I've had since the end of March. I hit 10 miles on my long run and really felt good afterwards. My paces (not that I am real concerned about pace) were much more consistent than in the past 6-8 weeks. In all of my runs I felt good the whole way, felt very little stiffness in my knees, calves or hamstrings, and the heat/humidity of a mid-western summer seemed to quit bothering me.
Something I started a couple of weeks ago is to move my weekly long run to Saturday morning. It fits better in my schedule. For some reason I also feel better throughout the run even though I am primarily an evening runner. The only issue is that I am REALLY hungry all day afterwards. We ended up at the Chinese buffet last night so I could re-fuel. A couple plates of sushi and cocktail shrimp later and I was good to go.
In the coming week the plan is for a 10 mile long run again. Also, I need to add more miles during the week to properly support that long run distance. If I add a 3-mile 5th day and extend my Thursday run to 6.2 miles I'll land at 30 miles for the week with the 10 mile long run. That's about where I want to be for the next 2-3 weeks.
Summer is great in northern Michigan. Next week the dark, sweet cherries will begin to ripen and that means we get to go cherry picking. Cherries fresh from the tree are the best. Our family tradition is to go to the orchard in the morning, pick a couple bucket loads of cherries and then take them to the beach on Lake Michigan for a picnic. By evening we have a nice pile of cherry pits :-D Hopefully we'll have enough cherries left to freeze some.
An administrative note for the blog: With my summer work schedule now kicking into high gear I am going to be posting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Not that I hadn't already pulled back on the posting, but I wanted you all to know that I wasn't abandoning the effort or anything.
So, how was your week? Did you have some good running moments? Some forgettable moments? Some burn the tape and never speak of them again moments?
In all this past week was the best running week I've had since the end of March. I hit 10 miles on my long run and really felt good afterwards. My paces (not that I am real concerned about pace) were much more consistent than in the past 6-8 weeks. In all of my runs I felt good the whole way, felt very little stiffness in my knees, calves or hamstrings, and the heat/humidity of a mid-western summer seemed to quit bothering me.
Something I started a couple of weeks ago is to move my weekly long run to Saturday morning. It fits better in my schedule. For some reason I also feel better throughout the run even though I am primarily an evening runner. The only issue is that I am REALLY hungry all day afterwards. We ended up at the Chinese buffet last night so I could re-fuel. A couple plates of sushi and cocktail shrimp later and I was good to go.
In the coming week the plan is for a 10 mile long run again. Also, I need to add more miles during the week to properly support that long run distance. If I add a 3-mile 5th day and extend my Thursday run to 6.2 miles I'll land at 30 miles for the week with the 10 mile long run. That's about where I want to be for the next 2-3 weeks.
Summer is great in northern Michigan. Next week the dark, sweet cherries will begin to ripen and that means we get to go cherry picking. Cherries fresh from the tree are the best. Our family tradition is to go to the orchard in the morning, pick a couple bucket loads of cherries and then take them to the beach on Lake Michigan for a picnic. By evening we have a nice pile of cherry pits :-D Hopefully we'll have enough cherries left to freeze some.
An administrative note for the blog: With my summer work schedule now kicking into high gear I am going to be posting on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Not that I hadn't already pulled back on the posting, but I wanted you all to know that I wasn't abandoning the effort or anything.
So, how was your week? Did you have some good running moments? Some forgettable moments? Some burn the tape and never speak of them again moments?
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