Category: General

I had an awesome run tonight, even though it was in the pouring rain.

Four miles, 38:11.45 total time, average pace 9:32.9! I’m having trouble believing it. If I hadn’t been there I’m not sure I would believe it.

Here are the half-mile splits:

1. 4:38.08 [downhill]
2. 4:53.13 [downhill]
3. 4:59.33 [uphill]
4. 4:40.58 [flat]
5. 4:33.41 [flat]
6. 4:23.04 [downhill]
7. 5:15.72 [flat]
8. 4:48.16 [flat]

All but one half-mile was under 5:00, and I don’t go over 5:00 until mile 3.5.

I’m very happy with this time. Between yesterday and tonight, I’m going in to my rest day pleased with my performance lately. Lots of positive stuff going on lately so I won’t single anything out but let’s just say that I’m not inclined to change right now…

Whoo-HOO!

I ran (at the gym, ’cause it was raining and cold) tonight very well. 30:00 even, 3.13 miles. Which works out to a 9:35 pace!

First mile was just a shade under 10:00, second mile was 9:32, third mile was 9:25… which is when I decided to run a full 30 minutes and see how far I could get. I was in the zone…

Very happy with my performance today. Maybe my once- or twice-a-week speed work is actually helping.

I love the internets. They (all of them) are the best places for trivia hounds like myself (my friends call me “the friggin’ genius”).

Where else can you learn a new, more secure way to tie your shoes?

Or even learn why the old way isn’t secure?

Phew!

For some reason I’d thought that the Mt. Tabor Challenge 5K was in May. It’s not. It’s Saturday, June 18th, 2005.

I did, however, miss the Lake Run — it was May 7th.

Two months ago, I satirized the idea that it might be possible to deny that the color green existed.

This week, Tom Tomorrow satirizes that some might deny that human sexuality existed. (Update 27 February 2022: link has gone dark, sorry.)

And then there’s those that deny the fundamental organizing principle of modern science. Oh… wait. They don’t intend that as satire. My bad. Those folk really would deny green or human sexuality if it meant they’d gain power.

I took some pictures last weekend and posted them recently. They’re pictures of signs in and around my neighborhood.

I seem to notice signs that didn’t originally refer to each other but because of positioning seem to… That’s an awkward way to describe the idea but it’s the best I can do right now.

Like the Divorce Shoppe (which is, in and of itself, an odd idea to me) with the “Closed” sign in the window, the store itself dark and empty.

Or the way the Will Call sign points to Marion.

Am I over-explaining? Maybe so.

I needed 5 miles today or tomorrow to reach my goal of 17 for the week, but having done 4 miles yesterday, I didn’t really want to do another long run.

So I broke it up into two 2.5 mile runs. Two different out-and-back-again loops from my apartment, one in the morning and one in the evening. An interesting experiment. I suppose it would have been better if I’d done the same loop; that way could compare my times from the morning and evening to see when I’m a better runner. I’ve pondered that question before.

But that’s not what I did. And I’m not sure about the overall distance for each loop; I think the morning one is a little short of 2.5 and the evening one is a little long. But I’m sure that, together, they constitute 5 miles total. So I’ll only note the overall times:

• Morning: 23:56.31
• Evening: 26:06.99
• Total: 50:03.30

— or just a teeny-tiny little shade over a 10:00 pace.

Ran last night. It wasn’t as nice an afternoon as Thursday night, but it was still a nice temperature and slightly overcast and not too humid.

What the hell. I was going to run anyway.

Planned (and did!) a 4-mile run. I did the same loop I did last week, with most of the tough hills towards the end. And I did about a minute better overall this week as last. Here are the splits:

1. 4:36.12
2. 5:19.12
3. 4:36.35
4. 5:04.13
5. 5:10.67
6. 4:46.61
7. 5:43.39
8. 5:08.10

Total time was 40:24.59, for an average pace of 10:06. But if you look at the individual times, I held back during the first mile (last week: ~9:28 vs this week: ~9:55), then beat last week’s time for each mile afterward until the end. In other words, I saved my strength for the later part of the run. I ran smarter. Yes, I did in fact plan that that way.

Yay, me!

Tuesday was on the treadmill, and I managed to run 3.05 miles in exactly 30:00, for a 9:50 pace. I think I did better on the first two miles and had to slow down for the last mile. But I didn’t stop to walk at all, so I was happy with the time.

Wednesday was a rest day.

Today I ran in my neighborhood. The weather has been gloomy and rainy, a hard rain, what Portlanders would call “pouring down rain”, so when the weather turned out nice and warm and sunny, I had to get out there and run. And I did really well, too, which makes it doubly nice.

I planned on 3 miles, with plenty of warmup and cooldown before and after. Wanted to maintain the same pace I had on the treadmill, or as close as I could. And at the halfway point, 1.5 miles, I saw 14:14.17 on the stopwatch. A 9:29 pace! Wow. I couldn’t keep that up for another mile and a half, though I still did well. I ended up with 3.0 miles, 30:01.41 total time, for a dead-on 10:00 pace. Yay, me!

A short, healing run tonight. In the gym, because it’s pouring down rain outside.

2.1 miles in 20 minutes exactly. 9:31 pace.

Ahhhh… that’s more like it.