Weekend Update

After a week with a series of frigid mornings that kept me off the road for all but one day, the weather finally started to warm up every so slightly this weekend. Actually, the weatherman said it was supposed to warm up on Friday but it was below 20 degrees on Friday morning, which technically is warmer than the 15 it was the morning before, but still too cold for me to be out there in just a fleece.

Thankfully, Saturday morning was much warmer (40 degrees is "much warmer" in mid-December) and I got a comfortable 5 miles in. Here's the data from that run:

Date: 12/8/07
Time: 11:36 AM

Weather: 40 degrees, overcast at the beginning, sunny by the end

Distance: 5.0 miles

Mile 1: 8:52
Mile 2: 8:48
Mile 3: 9:15
Mile 4: 0:25
Mile 5: 8:53

Total: 45:18
Average Pace: 9:02

Run felt good overall, although I got a late start, per usual, and the Inner Harbor was teeming with tourists and suburbanites so I had to adjust my route for that. I need to stop the procrastinating and get out the door earlier in the coming weeks. It felt great to get back out on the road though, to be sure.

Today it was cloudy and rainy when I woke up but the radar showed that the rain wuld be passing by about 11 or so. So I went out about 10:30 and sure enough, after about 20 minutes, the light rain let up and went away. This run called for 6 miles, so I finally did the run from the Inner Harbor out to Ft. McHenry and back. It was a nice run and of course the paths around the fort were vacant. Very peaceful run along the shoreline. Here's the data, followed by the route I took.

Date: 12/09/07
Time: 10:40 AM
Weather: low 40's, Light rain initially, overcast for most of the time.

Distance: 6.0 miles

Mile 1: 9:12
Mile 2: 9:00
Mile 3: 9:20
Mile 4: 9:38
Mile 5: 9:55
Mile 6: 9:19

Total: 56:28
Average Pace: 9:24



This week looks to be much warmer than last, which means I should have no problems meeting my mileage goal this week. Also, the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler is on Saturday morning, so I'm hoping for good weather for that, although I'd like it to be a little cold so I don't get too hot. Right now, I'm feeling good about the race and my chances to break my PR for the distance. We'll see how the training goes this week. Tomorrow is an off day, with only stretching and strengthening scheduled, so my tight calves will have 48 hours in total to recover and get ready for Tuesday morning.

Schedule for the week:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: 3.5 miles easy
Wednesday: 5 mile tempo
Thursday: 3.5 mile easy
Friday: Off
Saturday: Celtic Solstice 5 Miler
Sunday: Off (maybe a few miles easy if I feel good post-race)