Just Call Me Slacker

Yah....that's my new name. I have been in a total blogging funk. No desire to blog whatsoever, so I haven't. Not a very good excuse, but it's the truth. So here is my effort to get back into it. Speed has been far from my mind really these last 2 weeks. The weather has been soooo nice, all I want to do is run the trails until the snow drives me from them. So it has really been 2 weeks of trail running for me. I love the trails. They are good for my soul. One of the things that I really love about running the trails is that it clears my head and lets me focus on the beauty around me. With Thanksgiving this past week, it has allowed me to really reflect on all that I'm grateful for...at which at the top of that list are good friends, living in a gorgeous place, a strong body, and the freedom to do things when I want to without fear.

The one street run we did do this past week was the annual ORMC 5 mile run on Thanksgiving morning. Although this run was a little different than in years past. Usually the run starts with Sister Stephanie (a local catholic nun) giving a prayer of thanks. I missed that this year. I don't know if I just didn't hear it, or if it didn't happen, but one way or the other I didn't hear it and I was sad. Secondly, the run seemed really easy and short...oh wait it was. Someone was confused when plotting the course, because last time I checked 3.92 miles was not exactly the same as 5 miles....hmmmm....and thirdly we just ran and chatted sans any emotional trauma. Weird.

Plus this little guy joined us for the first time. Welcome Max to the joys of running.

The Need For Speed

When I'm upset or angry usually the first thing I want to do is go for a hard run. I want to run away from all of the things that are upsetting me, and just have a minute to clear my thoughts. When I run hard it seems that everything else in life falls away; it's just me and my thoughts and nature. It's so cleansing. I however do not always have that emotion to fuel my running. Because I am NOT a morning person and we exercise in the morning, many mornings it takes all the energy I have just to get out of bed, let alone run. My body screams at me as I put one leg in front of the other willing myself into a jog. Therefore I typically dread spead training and tempo run days. I know, however, that in order to widdle my half time down to 1:45 from 1:54 I am going to have to put some more effort into these workouts. Now if I could just harness some of my pent up agression and save it for the days that I speed train. Hmmmm....
Right now I have about 3 speed/hill exercises that I do, but I'm looking to expand. This week I am going to do some research and find at least 2 more speed training workouts that I can do to add to the reprotaire. I will report back next Friday. Are there any speed workouts that you've done that you really have found you love? I would love to hear about them.
In the meantime, happy training.

Trail Tempo Run

So I think I'd be much more inclined to do tempo runs all the time if every morning could be beautiful and filled with trails. Sadly it's much too dark to run the trails at the time that we usually go running. So we went at 7:00 this morning instead of 6:00 so we would have some light. The run itself was beautiful. The trail was wet from all of the rain yesterday and there were leaves everywhere so it was kind of slippery at times. I'm always amazed at how the trails energize me. I seem to be able to push myself a lot more on the trails. Today I felt really good running except for the occasional twinges of pain left over from doing 100 squats last Friday. Overall it was a great run. I just wish it were lighter earlier in the morning so we could do it more often. As much as I loved the trail run, running that late didn't really work for either Lori or I. Sad. But I will for sure take a tempo trail run any day over a speed training day! Tee hee.