I ran my close-to-home serpentine route solo this morning. One of the reasons I like this route is that it is well lit. For some unknown reason, I have a tendency to step on rocks and roll my ankles while running, especially in the dark. Despite my precautions, about 1.3 miles into this morning's run I stepped on a golfball-sized rock and rolled my right ankle. Fortunately, it was not serious and I was able to continue my run and "walk it off". I averaged about 8:47/mi for six easy miles run this morning. I threw in a half dozen 2/3 effort striders in the second half of the run. I intend these to be 100 meter striders. I've been meaning to get to the track and see how far 100 meters is in terms of number of steps. I think I've been running a little short. So instead of going home at the end of the run I added a little distance and headed to the track at THS. I only did a couple of 100 meter repeats and determined that I was about 20% short on my previous guesstimates of steps per 100 meters. I pushed the second 100 meters pretty hard (for a cold morning in long pants and long sleeves) and ran it in 19 seconds. I'm not sure what that means, but I thought I'd log it anyway for future reference. At noon, I ran Eagles View with Tom, Nathan, Will, and Bill. We started together but it wasn't long before Tom, Nathan, and Will were pulling away. We caught them when they had to stop at the State Street light, but quickly pulled away again. Bill pulled away from me up the big hill leaving me dead last...or last, dead. I guess I wasn't totally dead, because on the way back I managed to catch and pull away from Bill and close the gap on the others until the red light at State Street once again allowed me to catch them. It didn't last long. Tom and Nathan pulled away yet again. I managed to pull ahead of Will briefly, but he caught me later and we ended up finishing together. My splits out and up were 8:06, 7:52, and 9:29/mi for the roughly half mile up the big hill. On the way down and back my splits were 5:53 (downhill), 6:53 (two overpasses), and 7:06/mi for the last 1/2 mile (flat). My Garmin showed an overall time of 37:00 flat for 4.99 miles (7:06/mi). I feel good about the run. I would have felt thrilled if Tom and Nathan hadn't been so much faster. It helps that they are younger than me and will never be in my age division. :-)
| 