Runners and Dogs

I haven't had a weight sessions since Monday, 10/12. I may have gotten one in on Wednesday, 10/21, but it isn't written down in my log. I've had trouble scheduling something with my trainer since I returned from Cleveland but I finally made it to the gym on my own on Saturday for a chest/triceps work out after my 12 miler.

The 12 miler was done on the San Gabriel River Bike Trail, just like my last 12 miler the weekend before Des Moines. I ran the exact same route and finished it in 1:50:31 (9:13 pace), slightly better than the 9:15 pace from 3 weeks ago. One end of the bike trail wraps around a park behind the dam. There was a flurry of activity at the park with a middle school or high school cross country meet and a dog agility course going on.One nice thing about this run is that I sped up as I went. My first few miles were in the 9:30 to 9:40 range. By mile 9 I had dropped the pace to 9:02 and mile 12 was completed in 8:14. It is not often that I can end a training run faster than I started. I am usually the king of consistent pace throughout. Because I was still pretty fatigued from the relocation trip, I moved my run:walk interval down to 5:15/0:45 from 6:15/0:45. That made the pace all the more satisfying from the previous run.

This morning, Sunday, I got up to the bright sunshine compliments of the the time change and headed over to Bonelli for a 5 miler. The route was split about 50/50 on the trails and asphalt. Bonelli was also a flurry of activity with more runners and dogs involved. Today the Muddy Buddy was being run and a crew of Search and Rescue guys were out on a training hike with their heavy gear packs and their dogs.

I ended the week with 27 miles. I tallied up 135.2 miles in the month of October.