Start time: 12/1/09, 6:15pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:06min/mile
Total Miles For December: 4 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 782 miles

One of the (many, many, many, MANY) reasons why I will never be an elite runner: I lose what little motivation I have for running when it gets cold out. It wasn’t even that bad out yesterday but I still bailed and went to the gym and ran on the stupid indoor track instead. Which I am also not a fan of. After four I just had no desire to keep running, so I stopped there.

(8:15, 8:08, 8:08, 7:52)

Start time: 11/12/09, 6:00pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:25min/mile
Total Miles For November: 34 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 740 miles

I ended up missing my first run this week, due to a trip to the oral surgeon for a tooth extraction. (Joy!) I did get out for a swim mid-week, though, which was better than no exercise at all, of course. Anyway, I find it very funny that whenever I run on the indoor track, there’s always a ramping up process. Apparently it takes a mile or two to adjust to those 1/8th mile loops! Too wet and cold out to hoof it outside, unfortunately. Hoping to do an 8-10 miler on Sunday morning.

(8:47, 8:38, 8:13, 8:01)

Start time: 10/27/09, 6:15pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:40min/mile
Total Miles For October: 85 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 702 miles

With bad weather and other things going on, I didn’t get to do either a swim or a run yesterday, so I ended up doing both of them today. It was a great time at the pool (still improving over time which is a nice feeling), and I knocked another 30 seconds off of my time for the 1600yd routine I do. Then, after work, it was just a short jog on the indoor track. Sunday is race day and I’m taking it easy; just enough to keep moving, but not too much.

(8:58, 8:40, 8:23)

Start time: 7/28/09, 5:45pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 x 2 miles
Average pace: 8:15min/mile & 7:53min/mile
Total Miles For July: 76 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 455 miles

Been a while since I’ve run at TJ, but as it’s in the 90s even after work today, inside it was. I ran two miles, then stopped for about 40 seconds or so to get a drink of water from the fountain, towel my face off, and then back off I went. Pretty pleased with the splits. Also amused at the little kid who kept trying to catch me… and failing. But that kid was fast. And he probably clocked 2 or 3 miles, too. I wish I was that good a runner when I was under ten years old!

(8:25, 8:04, 7:50, 7:55)

Start time: 4/22/09, 6:30am
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:38min/mile
Total Miles For April: 55 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 245 miles

Originally I was going to run on Tuesday—but thanks to tooth pains all Monday night I was really not feeling it at all on Tuesday. I had a training class on Wednesday morning, but just enough time to get over to the gym and run four miles on the indoor track. Indoors was the right call for Wednesday, since it was occasionally spitting rain and hail that early in the morning. Eek!

(9:08, 8:35, 8:24, 8:23)

Start time: 3/26/09, 5:20pm
Location: TJ Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:10min/mile
Total Miles For March: 64 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 181 miles

My plan for Thursday was to get into work early, so I could leave around 4:15pm and have started my run at 4:45pm. (We had dinner reservations at 7pm.) Time I actually got out of the office? 4:55pm. *sigh* Really didn’t have time for anything more than 4 miles, so I made them quality miles and that’s what counts.

(8:32, 8:05, 8:09, 7:56)

Start time: 2/19/09, 5:00pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 8:22min/mile
Total Miles For February: 44 miles
Total Miles For 2009: 89 miles

Hey, that’s more like it. A quick four-mile run at the gym after work, and I felt, well, pretty darn good. Definitely hit those splits quite well; this was me really feeling like my old self. Hurrah!

(8:40, 8:14, 8:19, 8:15)

Start time: 1/27/09, 2:15pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 2 miles & 3 x 1 mile
Average pace: 9:43min/mile & 7:54min/mile
Total Miles For January: 40 miles

Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve run mile repeats. I was hoping to get four of them in today, but I also knew I was potentially biting off more than I could chew at first. I figured if I would go by the old adage from Fred that if you can’t complete the exercise at the desired pace, to terminate the rest. I ran my warm-up mile, then went for my 8min/mile targets.

The first two were fine—heading a little fast out of the gate on each of them at first, and then adjusting accordingly. And for the first half of the third one, it was the same as the first two… but then I definitely started sucking wind towards the end of the third. Three? Three sounds good to me.

warm-up/cooldown: 10:05, 9:21
mile repeats: 7:38, 7:58, 8:07

Start time: 1/15/09, 6:40pm
Location: Thomas Jefferson Community Center
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:06min/mile
Total Miles For January: 17 miles

Hey, that wasn’t bad at all. One full month after surgery, and two and a half after bronchitis, things are starting to come back together. Just four miles at the gym tonight, but after a slower first mile my pace picked up and at no point in time did I feel like I needed to stop for a few minutes. Maybe this weekend’s 8-miler won’t be so bad… well, aside from it being outside. Brrrrrrrr. Not looking forward to that already.

(9:45, 9:05, 8:48, 8:48)