Alexander Steed

This has become a pretty standard distance for me. Still need to get my time down. Took me 42 min

I've never run more than 6 miles until this workout. My friend Summertime coached me along and helped a lot. I ended the run having done about 10 minute miles. I was glad to have finished the distance but need to get a faster pace.

Tried to push this short run harder today. Maintained a pace of 8:45 which is still slower than I want but below 9 so close to where I want to be for a marathon pace.

Not going to run in the dark without reflective gear again... looks like it's trails only in the morning until the sun starts coming out earlier.

This morning I was determined to complete my workout on the treadmill because I didn't feel like running in the cold. I have done most of my training over the last couple of years on the treadmill just 2-3 miles at a time at a vigorous pace. My body must be programmed to stop after 25 min on a treadmill because I couldn't make myself do it any longer. So I went straight outside and finished the final 3.7 miles of my run in the cold... in my shorts and T-shirt. Amazing how little the cold gets to you when your heart rate is already up to 180.

My average pace has been over 9 minutes for these longer runs and it frustrates me. I think for now I need to focus on churning out the miles and not get so up tight about the pace.

This has been a tough last week. I got sick, bad weather, and couldn't seem to make time to run when the weather was nice. So then I started getting very discouraged and somehow just gave up on it and accepted that I wasn't going to achieve my goals (horrible, I know).

Then this morning the weather was half way decent and I felt good so I did a nice easy 4 miles to get back into the swing of things. It was really nice and felt great. Glad to be out of that dark place... :-)

Nice early morning run today. Weather was right at 40 so I was happy. Couldn't run out in the country because the sun wasn't up and I couldn't even see the road... but I got creative and was able to run through my neighborhood and a nearby neighborhood.

Had another nice neighborhood run. It felt really good. I felt like I could have churned out another couple of miles if I wanted to... but I had to get to work. My confidence is up and I'm really enjoying these runs.