Running in Thin Air

I spent the last four days in Denver, intending to run at least twice while there. It didn't quite work out that way, and the only thing I can blame is my own laziness. On Monday I went for a run at home before heading to the airport. I got in my 6 miles and felt pretty good about taking care of that so I could run the next day.

I stayed up too late on Monday night and therefore was in shape to get up early Tuesday before my meetings started. Tuesday after the conference I headed to Coors Field with a group of guys to take in the Rockies and Braves, so no time to run that evening. I didn't stay up especially late that night, but laziness persisted when the alarm went off the next morning. I finally was motivated enough for a run to take the lunch break for a 5-mile run. The hotel was in Broomfield, a suburb of Denver, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The sky was clear and even though the temp was a little warm, I finally felt good in getting out. I realized about a mile into the run I was laboring more than expected. Of course I'd gone out too fast, not blazingly so, but just enough to make it tougher in the thin mountain air. I enjoyed the run over the rolling hills and showered and made it back for the start of the afternoon sessions just in time. The less said the better about Wednesday night and my chances of getting up early this morning.

Instead I ran during The Boy's baseball practice, once again at Penguin Park. This was my first go-around this training plan with Yasso 800's, and it went reasonably well. With the temperature in the mid-80's I knew I wouldn't be hitting my goal (7 minutes/mile), but running fast would be good enough. Looking back over my times on the Garmin, I did get progressively faster on the intervals, from 8:10 average pace on the first one to 7:46 on the fourth and last. That's encouraging.

I really need to get my diet under control. I've had too much eating whatever I want, and that's just not good. I had more cookies this past week than I've probably had the rest of the year combined. Bad Randy!