A Passion for Running

Today was a hot, humid and grueling 6km run. Here’s to tomorrow!

Ever have one of those days when you just felt like blowing some carbon out? Well, today was one of those days. I think it must have been part of the reset after the excitement of Aaron’s wedding, and the stress of the past few weeks at work.

I ran slow and easy down to my favorite marked mile and then proceeded to run the mile at a medium 8:30 pace. Once I got there, I took my shoes off, ran another mile and then turned around and made my way back to the second marker. I guess that makes it a 3 mile warm up.

I hmmmed and hawed for a minute, felt a little fire ignite, and off I went to see what I could do for a comfortable, yet fairly fast mile in my bare feet. You see, up until today I had never challenged myself in a speed kind of way while running barefoot.

My main focus was on maintaining correct pose form. Concentrating on form seemed to help since before I knew it, I was passing the half-mile marker in 3:30 and it hardly seemed like I was exerting myself! I kept going still focusing on form with visions of a 7 minute mile swirling around in my head. I hadn’t really planned on running that fast (truly, I would have been happy with a 7:30 or 7:45 in my barefeet) but I was running so comfortably I figured I might as well give it a shot.

The second half-mile felt great up till the last two hundred meters which starts with 100 meters downhill and ends with 100 meters uphill. It was a challenge going fast and maintaining form on the downhill and I really sucked wind on the uphill but…

I came in at EXACTLY 7:00 minutes!

This is a big win for me. First, because I haven’t run a mile that fast since before my last marathon in October. Second, because the mile felt really comfortable and I stayed in form. Third, because I believe that in a few runs I can get that down to a 6:45 – my pre-pose method, pre-barefoot running one-mile interval pace. And fourth, because it was in my BARE feet!

Way cool.
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On another subject, Gretchen came along with me for the first time since October. She ran with me for the first warm-up mile until I took my shoes off. My changing to the pose method obviously messed her up since she measured the mile at only 0.92 of a mile. Looks like Gretchen and I will need to visit the track for a recalibration.

Jon and Dawn asked to see some drunk wedding pictures. I don’t have any of those yet but I do have a photo the minister took of me and my daughter. As soon as I saw it, I loved it. It’s my favorite picture of her and I in the whole wide world. *sniff*

Click here to view

Yesterday, Aaron and I hooked up for two miles. We were both too exhausted from the weekend to go any further. I seriously could have done that run in my sleep! Today, I am feeling rested and will go for 7 or 8k.

Well, the wedding is over and it was SO much fun!!! Congratulations Aaron. It was an awesome day.

And at work, a really big project I have been working on (and stressing majorly about) is wrapping up this morning.

So, as of noon today, my reset button gets pressed and things get back to normal (was that thunder I just heard?).

I’m feeling really good, satisfied and tired!

Before I get to today’s post, I just want to say thanks to all of you for your recent comments. Especially Jeff. Holy Cow man! You trying to make me cry? I’m kidding of course. Those were lovely words, Jeff. I was touched.

Well, we are a bit better than 24 hours away from Aaron becoming a married dude and I can’t wait. I think, I hope and I pray I’ve got everything done I’m supposed to have done!!!

Running-wise, I got out for an awesome 6k yesterday at lunch. It was cool out there and I felt light and speedy.

You won’t hear from me till Sunday evening AT LEAST due to the festivities of the weekend. Everybody try and have as much fun as I’m about to have!

Ciao!

That was Christopher’s greeting to me this morning (Lori had prepped him). The greeting I got from Cassandra was a little diddy that goes like this:

“Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. You look like a monkey. And you smell like one too”

Ahh kids.

Some people will probably be happy about that!

Anyhoo, I ran 6km with soon to be married Aaron dude yesterday and another 7 in the hot hot heat today. Took lots of walk breaks. Blah!

Over Roger…

Took friday off. Swam Saturday and am now concentrating on getting ready for Aaron’s big day this coming Saturday.

Have a great day everyone!

You must take a look at this. It is about 10 minutes long but completely worth every minute.

I’m doing better than expected on my goal to run every week day. Today was supposed to be a short one (3 to 4k) but Nick joined me at the last minute and there’s never enough time to solve the world’s problems in 4k so we did eight again.

Midway through the run, we heard someone yell Nick’s name and a fellow named Roy joined us. Next thing you know he was taking us off the paved path and into the dirt, pebbly-gravel trails. I haven’t run on a trail like that since last summer plus it was another first for doing it pose style. I was a bit worried too since it was also a bit wet, slick and muddy not to mention being quite undulating.

I thought it was going to be a real challenge for me but it turned out to be very very enjoyable. Running in pose form rocks on the trails. Wahoo!

In the last two kilometers, Roy was toying with us by doing some surges. I managed to keep up but it was tough to do so. It was only after the run when Nick told me Roy recently ran a 2:50 marathon so – how do I say this? He’s just a smidge faster than me.

Anyway, the push into the trails and the speedplay turned out to be just what I needed plus it was great fun!