Indoor Tracks

Sunday, January 15, 2012:

After a run, I shower and put on an all-cotton shirt, a running shirt received at a race somewhere, one of hundreds. Cotton pants help too. I love that feeling: clean, worn out, warm, and cotton all over.

Today we ran on the Knowles Center 200-meter indoor track, at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. It’s a very nice facility, open to the public much of the time, $5.00 per visit. I had intended to run 5 miles, but I’m not accustomed to running without walking and had enough at 4 miles. I had a tough time slowing down, actually, or I might have gone farther. Several times I deliberately slowed, by shortening my stride, but the moment my mind went somewhere else I was back up to a pace that I couldn’t sustain for 5 miles today.

Muscles are tired, which is one of the desired results. There are plenty of other reasons for muscles to be tired today too, including a marathon a week ago, snow shoveling this morning before the run, and more. No significant pains. It’s all good.

Splits: 9:35, 9:05, 8:54, 8:46, total 36:20, overall pace 9:05. I’ll do better as we get farther from the marathon.

Saturday, January 14:

North St Paul Community Center track, 13.5 loops per mile. This track makes me want to run fast, and today I did. Two miles at a decent pace, followed by one mile in which I walked one lap and sprinted the next. Splits: 9:01, 8:36, 10:30, total 28:07. This run felt very good, and afterward my legs were appropriately tired, which also feels good.

Thursday, January 12:

25 minutes on the elliptical machine, 360 calories. I think the machine equated that to about 2.5 miles.

Grilled organic chicken, organic spinach with a little goat cheese, organic cherry tomatoes with a little hot sauce: