Finally, a cold morning run. Wish I dressed for it...

The ducks were out at Caleb Smith this morning

Yesterday's run (street): 4 miles at 9:08
Today's run (street): 7.4 miles at 9:28

I waited until about noon on Saturday to run, mostly due to my reluctance to work up a sweat in the morning without the option of showering afterward. I spent the last 36 minutes strapped to my doctor's HRM in order to capture Saturday's workout. It was a pleasure to finish the run and end my 24 hours with this unit that was attached to me by four electrodes. I was still a little tired from Friday's stress test when I hit the road and though I managed a decent pace I felt like I was running in low gear the whole time. It felt as though I had a tether attached to me that prevented me to maintaining my desired cadence. My goal was to go out for a quick three miles but I ended up covering four. Upon returning home, I happily detached the electrodes and packed the HRM for return to the lab.

This morning I left early for my week's long run. My neighborhood boundaries limit my options for running real distances, after that I need to cross some traffic to prevent repeating the same roads. It was a chilly 38 degrees at 7:00 AM, far colder than I'd planned for the way I'd dressed. I did wear my best long compression pants but I didn't bring gloves nor a long sleeved shirt. I regretted my lapse when, after two miles, my hands were still semi-numb. Besides all that my run was pleasant, starting with a loop through my main neighborhood before heading into neighborhood #2 for a few miles. I stayed conscious of my pacing and tried to keep in the low 9:00 range. Despite the cooler temps my overall pace shows that I lost about ten seconds on each split. Although the numbers don't show it, I still felt like I ran better today than yesterday.

After a greatly appreciated (post run) hot shower we headed over to Caleb Smith State Park for a late morning hike. It's a really nice preserve with well marked trails. Every time I go there it reminds me of how much I'd like to actually run there. My wife, daughter and son did do some running while we were there but I chose to hike. I don't like running in jeans and my legs were fairly shot from the morning's seven miles. Despite missing my usual Friday run I still managed to get some good miles this weekend. The cold weather is definitely to my liking. I just need to be smarter about how I dress for it.