Back to school

Big Boy is at college. little boy is back at high school (with the whole place to himself now that his brother is gone). I'm back at work. I think I need some new crayons, though. Maybe a glue stick or two.

My friends, RC & DD, just had their first baby on August 31 - a beautiful boy named James (after his grandfather, but it's funny, he looks like a James). How soon is too soon to call and bother them and ask to see the baby and check up on RC to see how she's feeling? I probably ought to get his gift finished first. Right.

Lots of running to drone on about. First, I found a spare pair of new shoes in the closet that I didn't remember I had! Yay! The miles pile up fast on shoes when you're running 50+ mile weeks and the things only last up to about 300 miles. I'm rotating 4 pair at the moment, the new pair of Asics 2110, an old pair of the same with 250 miles on them, a pair of Asics Enduro II with 150 miles on them, and a pair of Asics Eagle Trail V with 75 miles on them.

How do I know how many miles are on the shoes, you non-runners ask? Easy. I run with a Forerunner and download each run to my computer. I not only can get a satellite image of where I've run, the program I have has a drop down menu that indicates which pair of shoes I used for the run. Ok, so it sounds a little obsessive, but it makes you feel less crazy when you think something is up with your knees or your hips or your feet and you look at your shoe mileage and realize that you're running on worn out shoes! So you're not falling apart, or getting too old to run, it's just the shoes. And shoe shopping keeps you young! Or at least, that's what I've been telling myself.

So, Saturday's long run was 20 miles. I ran 20.61 miles in 3:14:52 for an overall pace of 9:27. I ran along Lake Michigan (from Veterans Park up to Whitefish Bay and back) with Big Boy riding his bike with me for company. Plus, I wanted to look like I had a posse (I guess I need more people for that, I'll keep that in mind next time). It was a weird out and back and around the pier and out and back again sort of route, but it got the miles in. I tried to run the last three miles at goal marathon pace or better and although the Forerunner got a little wacky, my average pace for those last three miles was just under 8:00. Which I think would make it my fastest 5K ever.

A couple of 11 milers this week, one at 9:40 mpm, the next at 9:30 mpm. A 7 mile tempo run this morning, with a mile warm up & cool down (you know the routine if you've been reading this blog at all). Target pace was 8:29 for the 7 miles. Here's how I did:

1-9:17
2-7:56
3-8:12
4-8:24
5-8:24
6-8:25
7-8:41
8-8:25
9-9:52

Tempo pace-8:21 mpm. Overall pace-8:37 mpm. I am so glad that tomorrow is a rest day and next week is a cut back week.