Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Keep running fatty!

I snuck out at lunch for another tempo run around the work loop. I didn't feel that good but a gasping-for-air hilly run should sort that out, right? I pushed a fast pace from the start and knocked the first mile out in 6:06. Sadly this was too fast and I didn't even come close to it again for any of the other splits. The hills weren't treating my legs well and I still felt a little sore from Sunday's tempo run. Too much fast running too close together?

My bad knee was a little sore for the middle 3 miles of the run but calmed down after that thankfully. I managed to average a 158 HR for the run which is a little high for me, especially the pace I ran. I need a little rest. Thursday will have to be an easy run.

I tried to pour on all the energy I had without blowing up completely and I came up :30 short of a PR. Still a good effort, finishing in 40:54.

Time: 40:54
Dist: 6.0
AvS: 7:49

In other news, I'm going to try to get my missed long run in on Saturday. I'll still be on track for the 50K race in April and the Redmond trail marathon in late March if I decide to run it. I'm still on the fence about paying $43 for what will be a training run with drop bags. It'll probably come down to scheduling. It's not my "A" race so it's expendable.

I had my body composition tested for the first time ever at the gym yesterday. They don't do hydrostatic (tank) tests, opting for electrical impedance instead. I measured at 8.8% body fat. I don't know what the margin of error is for the various methods of measurement but this really surprised me. I thought I'd be around 12% - 14%. I'm happy about the number. I'll have to work that much harder to lower it though. My breakdown was:

Height: 77.5"
Weight: 189.8#
BMI: 22.2 (tall guys get robbed on BMI)
Body fat: 8.8%
Fat pounds: 16.6
Fat FreePounds: 173.2

It seems hard to believe that I have 16+ lbs of fat sloshing around. Being a competitive person I'm hoping to drop the body fat down a few points by the end of the year. We'll see if I can clean up my diet and keep up the running.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Less than expected

I didn't get the long run in today. I was on track to but ended up watching the kids for a good portion of the day after getting little sleep last night. I'll have to try to either get out early one morning this week before work or shift my schedule forward one week. I was smart and left one week of play in my schedule just in case I had to miss a long run.

I did get a break at 5pm to get out for an hour and had to think quickly about what to do with my time. I ended up going out hard for 25 minutes then coming back hard and following up with a slow cool down around a little 0.6 mile loop near the house. I ran hard from the start instead of my usual first mile warm-up. (6:43 first mile) and out to the tunnel trail I pushed hard on all of the climbs today as I think that's a weakness for me. I headed toward Kopachuck on Artondale. I went up and over the hill past Kopachuck and down the other side for mile 3 (6:53 split) then tried to focus on hitting 3.5 miles in 25 minutes. I missed it by 36 seconds but I'm happy to be that close.

I turned around and hustled back to face a long uphill where I tried to hold a sub-9 pace up the hill. I did pretty well keeping a my pace up with fast turnover. I passed Kopachuck again in the other direction and continued toward the tunnel trail. I headed down and tried to keep my tired legs going fast for the last mile and a half. I pulled the pace up a bit but only managed 7:28 and 7:02 for the last two mile splits. When I got home again I ran a slow cool down loop around the block and called it a day.

If I only count the first 7 miles (not the cool down) the numbers are:
Dist: 7.0
Time: 50:52
Avg: 7:16/mi
Alt: 2984 (Garmin claimed) so realistically probably 1500.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Great trail run

I Got out for a lunch run today. I ran the first bit of the work route and then continued into the Bridle Trails for a short loop in the mud and then headed back to the gym. I didn't want to run with no plan so I tried to keep what I'd like to be marathon pace, 7:30/mi. I kept on target except for the hilly bits in the middle. I'm loving running on trails these days. It's just a damn shame that there aren't trails around the house that I can run on the weekends.

Speaking of the weekend, the schedule calls for 19 miles on Sunday. Going longer and longer adds another element to the route planning, buying water to refill my bottles. I can't imagine that giving up the bottles and running with a big Camelbak / bladder thing on my back would be comfortable for very long. I see people wearing those gray Nathan bladder vests with pouches but... they're $80, they look like ass and I don't think that they're comfortable. I'll just stick with two UD hand bottles for now. Each one will last for about 6 miles. It just means that I have to plan the route to go by a store after 60 - 90 min.

So far I've been using HEED and Hammer gel for fueling on my long runs with Recoverite after. I need to spend some time finding something else I could use for fuel on my long runs. I like the idea of a liquid diet for long runs / rides but I have a hard time with the reality of it. I want to like Hammer products and I've had success using a mixture of Hammer gel and Perpetuem for long events but it's hard to get past the taste. Chris mentioned using Coffee to flavor the Perpetuem and make it more palatable. I want to try that out soon and see if it's tolerable. I think I still have a huge jug or two of Perpetuem around the house somewhere.

Sounds like I have some planning to do.
Time: 0:42:42
Dist: 5.5
Avg: 7:45/mi

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

run, rest, repeat

I Went over the gym at lunch and did the custom intervals program on the hamster wheel to the tune of:

7 min warmup
6 x
3:00 @ 6:00/mi (10 mph)
2:00 @ 13:30/mi (4.4 mph)
2 min. cooldown

I meant to do 6:30 half miles but didn't remember until I'd completed 4 of them so I just kept going at 6:00. It didn't feel too hard but I my HR was definitely getting up there at the end of the 3 minutes running. I measured my HR at 160 at the end of one of the repeats and watched it drop back down to 115 during the rest interval. I wish I had another 20 minutes at lunch to run so I could have done a few more intervals and a longer cooldown.

That's tempo and speedwork done so far this week. I plan to run a few junk miles on Friday and then map out a 19 mile long run on Sunday for my first week over 30 miles since before my knee surgery. I hope to hold slightly sub-8 average for the long run despite the hills. I wouldn't mind finding some new routes as well. I'm getting a bit tired of the same streets.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Smooth sailing

Sunny and mid 40s today. Colder than I'd like but two shirts and shorts were enough that I didn't feel it. I went with the clockwise work loop. After an exhausting 3rd birthday weekend for my daughter and a pile of work to catch up on I didn't have the motivation to chase a new best time today. I settled on running a fast tempo pace that wasn't all out and sprinkle in form accelerations for the last 1/4 of each mile.

I settled into a pace that was faster than it felt (always a good thing) and picked up the pace a tad while focusing on my form (chest out, hips level, butt forward, mid-foot strike, core tight) at the end of every mile. It was nice not to be gasping for breath on every hill then trying to catch my breath while my HR was at 90%+. The trail portions weren't too muddy and I even reeled in another runner who was about a quarter mile ahead of me at the end of the trail.

I ended up just under 42 min for the run which surprised me. I feel like my running has moved up a notch when I run at a fast but not suffering pace like I did today and still come in at just under 7:00/mi. average. I'm only doing 25 - 30 miles a week yet I'm running very well (for me). I used to run 40 - 50 miles a week with a few "junk" runs a week that were neither at a fast pace nor a recovery pace. Not hard enough to improve yet not slow enough to recuperate. I must have enjoyed actually running or something. Strange...

Time: 41:46
Dist: 6.0
Avg: 6:58/mi

The rest of the week will hopefully be:
Tue: weights
Wed: intervals
Thu: weights
Fri: recovery run
Sat: off
Sun: Long run (19)

Saturday, February 13, 2010

wipe out

I didn't know what to do with the weekend run on the "between weeks" of my training plan. I increase my long run 2-3 miles every other weekend so the weekend between those long runs didn't have any specific type of workout scheduled. I do speedwork and tempo on weekday runs already so I thought I'd try hill repeats. I've never done them before and today was my first crack at them. I debated doing a bunch of short (10 - 20 second) repeats up a very steep hill vs. doing a few longer (1/2 mi) repeats up a moderate hill.

I didn't see as much value in the short/steep repeats so I went out to 40th ave, a hill that's about a mile long @ 6-7% gradient. It's the closest hill of any length around the house at 2 miles away. I used the run there as a slow warm-up for my legs. When I got to 40th I ran a half mile up the hill at the fastest pace I could hold the whole way then jogged back down and repeated that cycle 3 more times. I held the times pretty consistently until the last one. My times were: 3:11, 3:10, 3:12, 3:19.

I was really gasping for breath for the 2nd quarter mile of each repeat. I felt like I just couldn't breathe deep enough and couldn't get enough air in. The only downside of this kind of workout is that I use the slow jog back down the hill as the rest interval which ends up being about a minute or two longer than I'd like the rest to be. Ideally I want a hard 1/2 mile uphill then a slow 1/4 mile downhill. I'd run out of hill pretty quickly doing that. It was raining pretty good the whole time I was out running but it didn't bother me at all. I was pretty wet but once I got going I warmed up except for my hands.

I really wish I'd worn gloves today for two reasons, 1) to warm up my hands and 2) to protect my hands when I fell on the side of the road. I was jogging downhill after the 3rd repeat on the shoulder facing traffic. There aren't any curbs or sidewalks on 40th, the edge of the paved road meets the dirt/mud/gravel. I moved over to the edge of the pavement to stay farther away from an approaching car and stepped in the mud/gravel. My foot instantly started to slide. I tried to plant my other foot to stabilize myself but both of my feet just slid to my left and out from under me. I went right down, landing on my right hip and hands. The road is pretty rough pavement so my hands stung the rest of the run. (they're still sore.) No cuts or bruising (yet) but a mild abrasion on my hip. Pretty minor stuff.

After the fourth repeat I headed back with two cool-down miles. I've never tried hill repeats before so I hope they're good for my form and pacing.

Time: 1:08:04
Dist: 8.15
AvS: 8:20
4 x 1/2 mi uphill repeats.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Trudge mill.

The weather was cold and rainy today so I had to decide where to do the speedwork that was on the schedule. I thought it'd be a pain to do intervals on the roads / trails with my Garmin so I headed to the treadmill instead. I ended up using one of the older treadmills because the model at the gym has this nice feature where you can set up custom intervals. You enter the recovery speed and time, then the interval speed and time and the number of intervals. Today I entered:

Recovery speed: 6.7
Recovery time: 2:30
Interval speed: 9.3
Interval time: 6:30
# Intervals: 4

I started out with 3/4 of a mile of warmup at ~9:00 pace, then set the incline to 2.5% and started in with the first recovery period (you have to do the recovery first for some reason). Doing the intervals at 6:30 pace didn't feel too bad. I couldn't have gone too long at that pace but a mile wasn't bad. By the 3rd interval I was starting to struggle and my legs were getting tired. I kept up for all four, barely hanging on for the last one. Next I did a quick cool down, cleaned off the sweat I sprayed all over the machine and hit the showers.

I would have liked to do more than 4 x 1mi but I just don't have time for it at lunch. I need to see about hitting a local track before work some time soon to get the workout in and see how it feels to run 6:30 mile repeats on a track. Looking back at my training log, I was doing mile repeats at roughly this pace in 2003, only I did a few more of them. My log only goes back to 2000 but I remember preparing for the Portland marathon in 1998 and doing 11 x 1mi. I think I was doing them at 7:00 though. I remember that my pace was really in tune back then and I could run 8:00 miles by feel. I'd time myself and be within 2 or 3 seconds of 8:00 without looking at my watch until the end. That race still stands as my Marathon PR at 3:26:51.

No running tomorrow and hill repeats planned for Saturday if birthday preparations for a 3 year old aren't too time consuming. :)

Maybe now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, I'll have some restraint and run even intervals instead of trying to kill each one and get faster and faster.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Nudging the bar up a little.

I got out for a lunch run today after giving my legs a break yesterday. It was overcast and 40F which was a bit of a surprise. I thought about just hitting the treadmill in the warm gym but figured I'd enjoy the outdoor run a little more. Other than my fingers not warming up for the first 3 miles I did enjoy it. As I always do on my lunch time runs I ran the work loop (rectangle); This time counter-clockwise for variety.

I didn't start off planning to race it as fast as I could. I tried to find the smooth pace that I found about 11 miles into Sunday's run that was smooth, easy at a sub-7 pace. I had the speed today but it wasn't nearly as fluid. My HR picked up after the first mile as I headed down the corridor trail toward the back-stretch. I was gasping for air on the two short steep pitches and trying to come back down to earth when the trail leveled out.

The Garmin was all over the place pace-wise on the back stretch. The trail that follows the road is almost all under tree cover so I'd guess the GPS signal isn't constant through there. I was keeping my HR above 155 (~85%?) the whole way and at the end of the back stretch I hit the steep longer descent. I tried to pick up the pace as fast as I could on the descent and still be in control of my body. I kept looking at the Garmin and saw my pace keep dropping until it hit 4:34/mi for a few seconds before I bottomed out and had to slow down.

Seeing that surprised me; I didn't think I'd get under 5:00/mi. At the bottom of the hill a short flat section gives way to a longer steep ascent to match the descent. I hobbled up the hill as best I could, trying to run on my toes with quicker steps, then trying to do a fast shuffle. Running uphill seems like something that a person could get better at and develop a style for. I could be wrong, maybe it's just how well you adapt to suffering. It's not something you think about much. Once I start going uphill my running form falls apart and it's just survival trying to keep moving at a decent pace.

After the hill I made the final left turn and did my best to keep a sub-7 pace for the last mile and a half. It's slightly uphill so I wasn't quite able to but in the end when I got back to my timing point in the parking lot the watch said that it was a new best time for this route.

Dist: 6.0
Time: 40:26
Avg: 6:44/mi
Splits: 6:22, 7:36, 6:35, 6:12, 7:22, 6:19

I'm really enjoying the extra running-produced dopamine lately. Such a lovely mood-improving neurotransmitter.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Super Run Sunday

Now that I have an "A" race (The 50KM race) on the calendar I had to sit down and draw up a training schedule to work up my long runs to the proper training distances. Today ended up being a 16 mile run despite running 14.4 last weekend. It was in the low 50s and sunny yesterday but 50F and cloudy today. I misjudged the temperature before starting the run and wore my warm Craft cycling base layer under a long sleeve tech shirt. I was a little warm the whole run but not enough to make a difference I guess.

I started out with a slowish warm up mile as I headed out toward Fox Island. After the first mile I picked up the pace to a steady reasonable pace. My HR settled into the low 140s as I went across the bridge and started up the hill to the top of the island. I turned around at the church which is the 5 mile point from the house and headed back down and across the bridge. I turned right after crossing back into Gig Harbor and continued around Warren Dr. toward 70th. I started having G.I. discomfort about 4 miles into the run and by the time I got to 70th I had to duck into a secluded dead end trail for a pit stop again! Taking Imodium before the run didn't help enough. (more than you need to know, right? Sorry).

I was keeping pretty good splits thus far in the run, 7:30 - 8:05 for the most part except for the mile with considerable uphill sections. Even with the slower first mile I was keeping my average under and 8min/mi average so I was happy. I headed down the other side of 70th and out onto Artondale dr. I took it all the way around to Ray Nash dr. Artondale has a good share of rollers and I started to really get into a strong smooth pace here. I'm not sure where it came from as I was already 10 miles into the run at this point but I dropped my fastest split (6:58) on mile 12 and it wasn't particularly downhill either. I just found a good stride, felt my legs responding well and pushed the pace a bit. I don't remember the last time I've run that smooth. I wasn't killing myself and out of breath (my HR only got up to 155 that mile) just running really well. Sadly I couldn't keep the momentum as I arrived at the little country store where I needed to buy more water. The short break broke up my rhythm and I had to get back into the groove after the 3 minute stop to refill.

I never quite found the strong pace again but I did keep from imploding with the next three miles: 7:26, 8:14 (short steep hill), and 7:37. I had to make another pit stop in the woods at this point and was shortly back on my way to the last mile that I used as a cool down at > 9min/mi pace.

Overall I'm very happy with the way my legs/body are performing lately (except the G.I. issues of course). I'm running my long runs at a pace that's the same or faster than I've run in the past. Looking back through my records (which go back to 2000) I was running a few seconds/mile faster for some of my long runs in 2000 but that's it. Those runs were almost completely flat however. I have yet to run anywhere in WA that doesn't have at least a thousand feet of ascent/descent every 10 miles. Maybe it's the core work and stretching that I do every night or only doing 3 or 4 runs a week instead of the 5 or 6 I used to... It Could be the last 2 years of weight training or my current body weight. Maybe I'm just so starved for free time that I'm greedy and want to get as much running as I can in while I'm out there. :-)

I'll take it whatever the reason is.

Time: 2:04:16
Dist: 15.85
Avg: 7:50/mi (7:42/mi for the middle 14 miles)
Alt: 4301 (Garmin claimed) so about 2,000 in reality.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Why you shouldn't listen to music while running

I found a good reason not to wear my iPod while I'm running:

It slows me down!

The weather was nice today (for February in Washington), low 50s and between rain storms so I went for a run today at lunch. I did my standard 6 mile work loop. As I got dressed I thought about what I'd listen to on the run and nothing sounded good so I left the iPod and braved a run without it.

Years ago, before iPods I never ran with music and now I never run without it. Lately I've been listening to Stuart on the Quadrathon podcast a lot but today my lungs gasping for air sounded better.

I ran the loop clockwise which has a net descent over the first two miles before paying for that with a couple of miles of uneven climbing. It finishes off with ups and downs and a slight uphill finish. My legs still felt a tad sore from Sunday's 14 mile run and I didn't think I had much in my legs. I kept looking at my watch thinking that it was getting bad GPS data when I was seeing my pace in the 5:40 - 6:20 min/mi. range. I went through the first mile in 6:13 and though I wasn't trying to kill my legs I held it to go through 2mi. in 12:03. At this point I hit the base of the big climb.

The climb slowed me down as I passed a friendly female runner and watched my HR hit 165 and stay there for the next mile and a half before the path leveled out and I got back to running sub-7 min. miles.

I tried to keep my leg turnover high and my HR at or above 160. My pace wasn't very steady as I came up the back stretch and turned down the corridor trail. Luckily it wasn't very muddy on the trail so I could keep my pace up and catch my breath without worrying about my footing too much.

By this point in the run I knew that I had a chance to break my PR for the route so I was looking at my watch frequently and worrying about keeping my pace up. I made the right turn onto 148th for the last 2/3 of a mile and gave it everything I had left to hit the 6mi. point in 40:42.

Time: 40:42
Dist: 6mi.
Avg pace: 6:47/mi

That's a minute under my previous best. I'd say I gave it about a 9.5 - 10 on an effort scale and my lungs were burning most of the run. I'll call this my tempo run and hope to get some speedwork in later this week. So far I like the Run Less Run Faster book. I can manage three quality runs a week.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone


Update: My splits from the run today:

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Monday, February 1, 2010

The kids are still sick / not sleeping at night but my knee was feeling normal so I was able to get out yesterday when the girl was napping for my long run. I didn't have any big plans other than to go for about 2 hours. I spent a few minutes on gmap-pedometer and mapped out this run: http://bit.ly/dlsINZ .

I started out with a slow warm up mile leading out to the tunnel trail and then turned right toward Ray Nash instead of left toward Kopachuck. I followed Ray Nash for about a mile until I had a bad gassy feeling and started looking urgently for a restroom. I knew that there weren't any around so I had to quickly find a secluded spot and do the "bear in the woods" thing. I really hate it when that happens on a run.

After that unplanned pit stop I tried to find my pace again and got back on track through the rolling hills. I try not to worry too much about pace but at the same time I try to push the pace so that it's Long Steady Distance and not Long Slow Distance. The weather was overcast and for about 30 minutes the sun actually made an appearance which was a welcome change. The roads lead me out to Wollochet and then up the short steepish hill where I continued on down Wollochet instead of following the road up 40th. I headed down to Cromwell for the first time ever on a run. I'd been down there on my bike once a few years ago and all I remembered was that it was hilly. The road heads down quite a while and then goes along the water for a mile or so which presents some nice views of Fox Island. I headed up 62nd ave which was just one long hill and got a few odd looks from some residents out gardening. At the top of the hill 62nd turned into 32nd (exciting yes?) and I headed to 70th and then up a short hill to Horsehead Bay rd which is a nice 1 mi. steady descent. I was about 11.5 miles into the run at this point and wanted to push the pace on the descent.

It was hard to do the math as I was between mile markers as I started the descent. I kept the pace under 7:00/mi for the whole descent and then over the little bump at the end of the descent to another shorter descent. I did about a mile and a half at 6:40 pace which felt pretty good and left my legs a little rubbery. Luckily I only had a little over a mile left.

I kept it strong until I had a mile left and then trotted in at a 9:30 pace to cool my legs down a bit. Happily I have only a tiny bit of soreness in my knee that I've come to accept as normal since surgery. I managed to keep my average pace under 8:00/mi for the whole run including the slow first and last miles.

Now for an unpaid review:

I gambled on my sock choice, going with Drymax trail running socks on recommendation from the Wilderness Running Company blog ( http://wildernessrunning.com - check them out, they're great!). I've been running in the same 10 pair of Wright double-layer socks for the last 12 years and they're finally starting to wear out, (damn they're durable!) so I'm testing out new socks. The Drymax socks are meant for trail running and conditions where you have a good chance of getting your feet wet. It didn't rain on the run but I did step in a creek with one foot on my pit stop and didn't feel it through the sock at all. They're quite a bit thicker and more comfortable than the Wright socks as well. No blisters or other foot irritations so I'll stick with them. I'm not terribly picky with socks as long as they're more than just simple gym socks. I've had luck with Recovery Socks, Wright socks, these Drymax socks, and Injinji Tetrasoks (with the individual toes. They look odd but work great!) So add Drymax to the list of socks that work for me. It'll be interesting to see what works when I get to 3 hour long runs in the next month or two.

So I've been mostly limiting my long runs to 2 hours because of the whole "kids"excuse and my daughter naps about 1.5 - 2 hours most days. For the 50K I plan to run in April I should probably up that to a 3 hr run at least. I haven't figured out whether I want to start incorporating walk breaks into my long runs as they increase in distance. I don't want to drag them out too far as my main limiting factor right now is time so I'm trying to be efficient in how I use the time that I have for running. On the one hand I want to get as much out of the hours running that I can but on the other hand if I end up doing walk breaks or a run/walk ratio on race day, I don't want that to be the first time I've tried it. When I did my 50 mile run 8 years ago I ran a 30 mi. training run with a 2 min walk every mile and then ran the race at an 8min/2min run/walk ration with great success. I'm thinking about running the Redmond Watershed Preserve marathon at the end of March as a training run for the 50K. It's a trail marathon, something that I've never done but would like to. It's all about finding the time I guess.

In any case, the stats for the run yesterday:

Dist: 14.4
Time: 1:54:18
Pace: 7:56/mi
Alt: 2200'

Night trails again

I don't know why I have such troubles sitting down in front of the computer to blog about my running. I'll blame the horrible bout of teething that one of the kids is having plus the cold and sleep trouble that the other has.Sounds good enough to me. My lack of sleep is throwing off my work schedule so I'm getting home later than usual at night and wanting to eat and go to bed in short order. So excuses mapped out, here's what I meant to write about:

My knee was feeling better and better over the past week and my fears of having re-torn my meniscus were diminishing. With my work schedule off track I was going in to work late and missing my lunchtime gym sessions (getting in at 10:30and then going to the gym at noon feels like bad form). Last Wednesday I planned to stay late and get out for a night run after work. I had a good run the last time I went out for a night run on the Bridle Trails in the rain so I figured with the lack of rain lately that I'd have good odds.

I got out of work at about 7pm and geared up at the work locker room instead of starting at the gym. I ran a slow first mile from work over to the corridor trail. It was here that I turned on my new LED Headlamp that I picked up on Amazon for $9.50. It's dirt cheap and pretty bright. With 25 LEDs it easily outshines my older Petzl Tikka headlamp. Since it was so cheap I also bought a compact LED flashlight from Amazon for another $5. Using the two of them on the night runs lit the trail up pretty well. The flashlight it a little bigger than a roll of nickels so I just tucked it into the hand grip of my UD Quickdraw water bottle and looped the lanyard around my wrist. I pointed the bottle where I needed to see and the only problem was blinding myself the first time I took a drink.

So I ran through the corridor which was mostly mud and puddle free. I made it out to the Bridle Trails and my knee felt fine. The only issue with running the Bridle Trails at night is that with no lights anywhere around, It's sometimes hard to figure out which path to take at the many trail intersections. I have to go by memory somewhat to figure out where I want to go. I made almost all of the right choices this time and got around 3 sides of the perimeter of the park. It was a little spooky to run out there at night but very peaceful and serene at the same time. Eventually I hopped out onto 132nd ave and followed the path that I normally take for my weekday runs from the gym. I didn't really need the headlamp once I had the streetlights to light the way.

The run was at a bit easier than normal pace as I was still being cautious
with my knee. I kept the easyish pace up until I got about a mile from work and then slowed down even further for a cool down. It's amazing how much running affects
my mood (well, endurance exercising in general really) especially after
taking almost a week off. Spirits were high for the rest of the night.

Dist: 8.75 mi
Time: 1:15:18
Pace: 8:36/mi
Alt: ???? 1000?