Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 34:18
Pace: 8:33 min/mi

Comments: Second run of the year and third run in consecutive days. Got up feeling much better than I had any reason to expect so I waited until mid-afternoon and took a stab at it. The current temperatures make that an option.

I started with a pretty good pace and didn't feel that terribly drained by the halfway point. So I tried to hold it steady on mile three and make a push for the final one. Initially I just wanted a sub 8:30 final mile but decided to push for sub eight halfway through. Got four seconds from it.

This was a very good run and my fastest pace in almost exactly a year. That's promising but the goal here is consistency. Gotta keep putting in the miles.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 36:37
Pace: 9:08 min/mi

Comments: Fantastic first run of the new year. Was rather brisk and uncomfortable at the start. Enough so I had real reservations about completing the run. But by the end of the first mile I had warmed up and started to find a bit of a groove.

I finished the first mile at just more than 9 min/mi pace, probably because I was going too fast to try and warm up at the start. That slipped to 9:26 min/mi on the second. At the turnaround I decided to try and push the pace a touch and did a bit better but as I hit the final mile I decided to try and get under the 9 min/mi pace.

I got within striking distance with about a quarter mile left and started pushing it and slipped under with a hundred yards to go and just said "what the hell" and sprinted it in. This wasn't a spectacular time or anything but it was a great effort to start me off in 2016.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 38:57
Pace: 9:44 min/mi

Comments: Last run of 2015. This was a really terrible year in terms of my running productivity; long periods of idleness, mediocre pace at best, almost no true long runs. The suck-it-up-and-finish style run today was a fitting conclusion to the year.

I'm wanting to get back into the groove in 2016. I'd like to keep times off to a minimum, have regular runs longer than 15 miles and see if I can get the pace under 8 min/mi regularly. I might even do a race if I pull it off.

Conditions
Hour: 1:00 p.m.
Surface: concrete
Weather: partly cloudy
Temperature: 51 degrees
Humidity: 61 percent
Wind: 5 mph
Location: Lewisville, Texas
Shoes: Asics Gel-Kayano 21

Injury update: nada