Making up for Lost Time

With the poor air quality last week from the wildfires, I didn't get to run until Thursday night with my group. Even where we run in Griffith Park, the air was very dry although it didn't have a taste like it does near the house. The run felt good, ran at a pretty fast pace (which is what I do on Thursday nights) and had a good time socializing at the running store afterward.

Friday is always a scheduled rest day for me, so Saturday would be my first chance to run in the area around our house. I got up early and the temperature was around 65 degrees. I decided to take a drive up the hill to the area where I like to do my Saturday morning hill runs. When I got up there, it looked like the surface of the moon...everything was burnt and there was still the lingering smell of smoke. I went back home and headed out for 6 miles of easy running. I headed east, away from the burn area and I didn't really notice a smell of smoke except for one area and was through that rather quickly. Turned out I ran 6.3 miles in 56:12. That is a bit faster than my PR for a 10K I ran in April. I spent the rest of the day working in the yard and then off to some friends house for a really great dinner and some fabulous wine.

I wanted to do 10 miles on Sunday as that would be my last long run before the Santa Clarita Half Marathon on November 2. After talking with my neighbor on Saturday about a route he ran, I decided to give it a try. It was only a 2.5 mile out and back, but it had a long incline coming back. I grabbed my water belt and Ipod and headed off and was moving at a pretty good clip as I let gravity pull me along. Got to the turn around, had some water and started back. The last part of the incline was a bit steep and had to slow my pace a bit to keep my heart rate in zone 4. When I got to the top, I felt pretty good and headed east to tack on some more miles. I ran about 1.5 miles and turned around and headed back to the house. When I got back, I checked the garmin and found I ran 7.2 miles in 1:05:05. I was a bit disappointed in the mileage, but I felt good as the last 2 runs, I have been trying to keep at a HM pace (9:00/mile) so I can try to come in around 2 hours. This week I will try and get back on schedule this week.