Just What I Needed

Running outside in the winter time can really drag on you. It is cold and you really have to watch your step the entire time to make sure you don't slip on some ice or snow.

The weather didn't help at all today as it began snowing in the early afternoon but I had a planned run at the Pettit Center so I could not have to worry about the cold or ice (even thought I was running only a few feet from ice the entire run). It took me a lot longer to get to Pettit since the roads were slippery and others seemed to have forgotten how to drive in snow. Once I got there, I knew I only had just under 1 hour before the Icebreaker Marathon meeting and I wanted to get in 7 miles of Tempo, so I got going right away.

I began running around 7:45 pace and wanted to see how long I could keep that up. I was doing well the first 10 laps trying to relax to conserve energy for the last 15 or so laps. Dana finally found me on the track as he was late from the snow as well. He ran with em for a bit and then he would run ahead of me and go fast for 4 or so laps and then run with me again. He is a lot faster than me so my pace was far to easy for him even though I was pushing it hard.

For my last 6 laps, I picked it up even more trying to get the laps down to 2:00 flat per lap which equated to a pace of 7:16 per mile. The final 3 laps, I even picked it up more and was running sub 7 pace. I finished just over 7 miles at an average pace of 7:34 and felt really good. It was a real treat to get that kind of a workout in since it was quite a log time since my last hard run. It was just what I needed.

After the run, we had our meeting on the Icebreaker Marathon. The Full and Half Marathons are full as well as the Marathon Relay. The 5K has only 7 spots left. The race is about a month and a half away and everything seems to be coming together. It should be a very exciting weekend!