Let there be light!

This is Bill and Alex working on Alex's science project for his Science Fair. He chose to use wind to create electricity so they have been diligently trying to get the small light bulb to shine. For the last couple of weeks the parts have been arriving, magnets, propeller, rods, small lights and all sorts of different wire. They put it together with a milk carton....organic of course, and nothing! Unwinding the long wire without the cat getting involved was a challenge and quite funny to watch as the wire was very delicate and Storm (cat) just couldn't let it be. I left to go running while they went at it again this time with a homemade cardboard contraption. They pulled the old one apart and started again just to find that another one of our animals.....who knows which one, snacked on the propeller blades but not bad enough to ruin the whole thing. Bill said, "well Alex, now you can honestly say the dog ate my homework". When I arrived home they had proudly assembled the windmill and Alex announced, "Let there be light"!

Workouts this week were light. The only intensity I had was track on Tuesday, Tempo on Thursday and KPR on Saturday. The track workout was surprisingly the same amount of repeats. I assume that's because they are still short and the length of time I am anywhere near AT (threshold) is small. Thursday was the standard Tempo workout but only 3.5 miles at AT and a sub 7:30 pace. I easy pulled the paces and they ranged from 7:16 to 7:26. The 7:26 is fine and within a good range but the 7:16 is too fast and I have to learn how to better control my pacing. Funny but I honestly have such a hard time "feeling" pace. Without my heart rate monitor to guide me I am lost with pacing. Seems like most good fast runners can identify their pace mostly by feel and I have been working on it but am not making a lot of progress. Maybe I am wrong about my assumption that most good runners can feel their pace. Maybe it's more of personality trait. Since I am rarely satisfied and never think it's fast enough....I just push more instead of focusing on how it feels. I should leave my HR monitor at home once in while and see if I can make the paces by feel. Boy that would be hard for me to do, where would all my data come from, yikes......no police attached to my chest, no information to load in my highly detailed training log. I could make this a New Years resolution but then I would have to do it and I am not sure I want to give up that much control. In an effort to get in touch with my less anal side and find my "Zen Zone" it would be a good exercise. But.......change is hard and if you want to make changes you have be honest and ready and I am just not there yet with this......maybe next year. For now I will just stick to my highly regiment freakish ways:)

Today was a KPR run and we did about 14+ miles getting progressively faster with the last 5 being at M-Pace which is 8:05 for me. Again my pacing stunk! I was slow on the first one by exactly 12 seconds and the rest ranged from 7:52 to 7:46 all too fast but I felt in control and my heart rate topped out in mid 3B. The group was funny as normal with all sorts of challenges being thrown around, encouraging words and just fun company. Everyone is getting faster and stronger. Brother Tom and Brother Steve are even goading each other on about road races.......who would have ever thought these two would race each other on the road!!!! Next Saturday will be an insane running challenge for me. I have to do 25-27 miles at an 8:25-8:30 pace sustained. I think this will be hard but I have a good route planned and some friends game to run it too so we will see. If I can do this workout as prescribed I will feel really good as I step into more intense training for my Feb. road 100K.