Better Runs

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010:

Last Monday I had a bad run at the N St Paul Community Center, but today’s run was just the opposite. I started more slowly, ran a mile less, and my cold is getting better. I had lots of energy at the end of the three miles. No problems, no pains.

I’m not enjoying the squirrel-cage track yet this year, though. Maybe I’ll try a treadmill next time so the track will seem wonderful by comparison.

Splits: 9:37, 9:11, 8:32, total 27:19, pace 9:11 average.

Wednesday, Oct 27, 2010:

Today we ran for the first time this fall in the Stillwater Bubble (St Croix Valley Recreation center). It’s a double (at least?) indoor soccer field, and every morning the doors open for walkers and runners at 6:00 am. The distance around the entire rectangle is very close to 1000 feet as a runner runs, with somewhat-rounded corners. The old surface had long since passed its design life, so a new surface was installed October 1 or so. The new one stinks.

We ran for an hour anyway, despite the smell of ground up rubber tires. In the Bubble I don’t try to run an exact distance because there are other people and it’s not always possible to clip the corners exactly. I time myself instead, and once in a while I may try to time one lap. 102 seconds equals 9-minute miles, and 114 means 10-minute miles. I ran closer to 9 than 10-minute miles for most of the time, I think, but ran out of gas in the last mile or so. That soft surface takes a little energy from every step. I ended up walking one of the short sides of the rectangle, then running the other three, and that routine still came out to 10-minute miles.

Good run, no problems. Even the right ankle.

Salad: