Longish Sunday run and Monday speed work

Sunday was a really nice run up Lief Erickson trail with my running partner and my newest partner, her new dog Declan. Declan is 2 year old Irish Setter who was rescued from a show breeder who couldn't show him due to some teeth issues. Well his teeth didn't keep him from running with us and he did a great job. He has been having some nervousness issues with the new home especially when it comes to new people. He did really well, only getting spooked a couple of times by bikes. It was great having him with us!

Our run was nine miles, the first half was all up hill. It always a great relief to hit the halfway point in this run when you can turn around and go back down the same way. We didn't really target any sort of heart rate mostly just wanting to get Declan out to see how he would do. So it was a nice leisurely pace and run than ended with a bunch of sushi for your recovery meal which I found to be surprisingly agreeable in those terms. I felt really good after and didn't eat again until later that evening.

Today I headed out to the track for a little speed work. I ran a couple miles of straights and curves, I suspect I did more than eight sets as I think I lost count of the laps. I haven't dived into my report yet. One frustrating thing with the Garmin is I am having a hard time getting the laps to reset. Sometimes it is not a problem and all I need to do is press the button, other times it doesn't seem to work. Not sure what is going on, but it is quite frustrating. The laps I did get all found me running under six minute miles on the straights which makes me pretty happy.

Speed workout that should have been a recovery

This week I have gotten off schedule mostly do to a high workload in the ole non-running life. How dare it interfere! Tuesday I did a tempo run that really should have been a recovery run, but I felt it was ok as I took Monday off. Same thing happened today. I did a speed workout that should of been a recovery day but I took Wednesday off so it wasn't too crazy of a run. Tomorrow I definitely plan on a recovery run and I mean it!

I ran to the track which gave me a good 2.25 mile warm up. I pushed it towards the end of that, but not too hard. At the track I took off my jacket and water bottle and made the mistake of not turning my watch timer back on. I did six laps of straights and curves before I realized it. I was so mad as I really wanted to look at the numbers. The heart rate monitor was going during it so I got to at least watch the numbers, but I have pretty much forgotten most of it. I was getting up to 180 on the straights and then back down to 150 before I set off again. I felt pretty good about that, but I think I pushed it a bit too hard at the start. I was sprinting more than just running fast. Felt good to sprint, would have liked to ogle the pace number if I had them, grrrr.

I added another mile before I headed home. I was pretty beat by the time I got halfway home but kept plodding along although slowly. Good workout!