A little better.

Today's run was a 6 mile tempo run at 85% effort. That's pretty subjective unless I get out my heart rate monitor but there's about zero chance that's gonna happen because I hate running with the chest strap.  And besides, I can gauge my heart rate pretty well when I'm running.  100% effort is about the point when I need to breathe through my mouth.  So at my current running level, 85% is about a 9:30 pace.  Hopefully that will improve over the next few weeks.

I did better about leaving the house this morning to avoid the heat.  It was still dark out when I left.  But apparently it was not early enough.  I watched the sun rise at mile 2.  Sure was pretty but it immediately went up about 10 degrees (or at least it felt like it did!).  So tomorrow I leave even earlier.

The first 4 miles went well (mile 2 looks a little slow but I stopped to take a few pictures of the sunrise).  Got really tired at mile 5 and stopped at the lake for a minute.  It was nice and shady.  But hard to get back in running mode cause I was tired and hot.  But knowing there was only 1 mile left made it an easier mental sell.  Tried to stay between a 9:15 and 9:30 pace the whole run and came in with a 9:26 average.  Actual split times were 9:17, 9:51, 9:13, 9:16, 9:26, 9:42.  Room for improvement.  But overall I felt it was a better run than yesterday.

Oh My Aching Feet!

I haven't been running much this summer and my feet were beginning to look almost normal again.  A few weeks ago, I actually had all my toenails so when my friend wanted me to go with her for a pedicure, I went.  :)  Of course about a week later, I lost a toenail but what can ya do?  The life of a runner!  And the pedicure was also a bad idea cause they filed off my callouses.  Oh how I want those back right now.  I get pretty bad blisters and they were my padding.  I'm wearing the most comfortable (and ugliest) running shoes of all time right now (Nike LunarGlide) but I still get blisters.  Guess it's just the way I run.  I've tried so many different shoes.

That's all for now.  Tomorrow's run is a 4 mile steady pace run.  Supposed to be a 9:00 pace and I'm gonna try to leave early enough that I beat the sun and keep the pace!