Oklahoma Highs and Lows

Oklahoma is known for its volitile weather, one day it's freezing and the next is balmy, the past couple of days have been no exception. Thursday it was 16 and my morning run was cut short by my buddies when we turned north with blowing wind and they wanted to go back home, so we did only 3.55 miles. I was so disappointed that I decided to go with Runner's World on Thursday night to get more miles in. It was still 16 degrees in the evening and breezy when we headed back north. I ran with Dave and Larry on the way back and we were in the 9 min./mile range and I sprinted the last block at the end. It felt really good!!! Dave is a great coach, knows just how much to push you w/o killing you. Wade and Nealy (sp?) really smoked at a sub 9 pace.

Saturday morning, we had a heat wave, got into the 50s by the end of our approx. 11 mile run. I've been studying Greg Macmillan (macmillanrunning.com) and my long runs were supposed to be no faster than 10:56 so my goal was to run no faster than a 10 min. pace and no slower than 11:00. The first three miles were in the 9:30 range but we slowed down after the 71st St hill and stayed around a 10:05 pace. I felt very good throughout the run, I felt a little tired from the fast run on Thursday but I had an easy time talking while running.

I'm sill having issues with my Garmin. I thought I had figured it out. I usually wear it with the screen under my wrist instead of on top of it because my wrist is so bony. Another runner had been doing the same thing and had trouble getting her satellite to fire off so she suggested that I try fastening the Garmin over the sleeve on my shirt and have the screen on the top. I tried it and it didn't work, it counted the 1st three miles as one lap so I guess I'll have to send it back to Garmin. We're having a Garmin clinic this Thursday so I'll wait until after that.

I think I'd like to do the Winter Classic out at Mohawk and I'm trying to decide b/t the 20K and the 30K. The 20K would be more of a race for me and the 30K would hover b/t a training run and a race.

Overall it's been an excellent running week for me, I was very focused as I ran. I really needed to have a good running week b/c work was very stressful, I had to tell someone they were included in our Reduction in Force. Even though I had other people I could reroute the tasks to, it required training and follow-up but I am very grateful for the help that everyone has given me.