149

Tuesday morning, I got up for my first early run of the year. I woke up at 5 AM, drank a glass of water, and waited for my system to do its work. I'm pretty regular in the mornings and when I'm not, I'm worried that my workout will be interrupted . . . Well, there was no movement this morning, but I felt good so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill. I know that a lot of runners hate the treadmill, but I find that it serves its purposes. This particular morning, I figured that in case I needed to go run and relieve myself, I would have easy access. I ended up being fine and ran my usual 6 miles at an easy pace. Here are the numbers:

6 miles, 57:45 time, 9:45/mile

I've been taking it easy on my runs for the last 2 1/2 weeks, testing to see how my knee feels. Overall, I still feel some dullness on the knee towards the end of the run, but after RICEing it, it feels fine the next day. So, yesterday, I decided to "stretch my legs" and give them a chance to get out and run around (I feel like I'm talking to my girls).

My plan was to do a short tempo run. 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles at 8:00/mile, 1 mile cool-down. When I started my run, I felt great and was excited about pushing myself during this run. When mile 2 came, I started to kick it up a notch. I had the same cadence as my warm-up, but I just took longer strides. I tried breathing deeper, from my abs, and letting my legs take me down my usual course. At the end of the 2nd mile, I realized I had gone out to quickly - 7:41/mile. I knew I was going to run out of gas if I kept this up. I slowed the next two miles down a little, but by the time I got to the last tempo mile, I was done. I ended up using the last 2 mile as a cool-down. Here are the totals for the run:

Tempo miles -
Mile 1 - 7:41/mile
Mile 2 - 7:48/mile
Mile 3 - 7:58/mile

6 miles, 50:47 time, 8:28/mile

After the run, I weighed myself and saw 149 on the scale for the first time since high school. I've been trying to get down to the high 140s, as I think this will be the ideal running weight for me. I decided to go out and celebrate with Lisa by going out to eat at a Japanese restaurant and stuffing ourselves with sushi! When I got home, I stepped on the scale and found that I was back in the 150s!