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?