Lots of Stroller Runs!

I've been seeing a lot of THIS lately:

Three different runs. Yes really.

Those shots were from my most recent Tues and Thurs runs: Jan 8, Jan 10, and Jan 15. All with Charlie. All chilly. And all on different parts of the Midtown Greenway trail. Here's a map that shows the trail's east end where it hits the Mississippi River, and noted are the 3 places I took these photos:

I covered MPLS edge-to-edge on the Greenway over these runs,
and St. Louis Park too. Ending with a bit in Hopkins to the west.

The Jan 8th and 15th runs started just to the east of the "Jan 8" on the map at the Uptown YWCA. The Jan 10th run started near that big "bump" around Hiawatha at the Midtown YWCA.

Here's what I tweeted after my run on the 15th:

These runs have been good, but they've also been a "wake up call" to start working more on my speed! The run on the 8th was a tempo run: I ran 6 miles total, with the middle 3 HARD. It was windy, so my first half was much slower than the last half:

3:21, 3:19, 3:27 = 10:08.48 (into wind)
3:03, 3:08, 2:52 = 9:04.10 (with wind)
= 19:12.58 for those 3 miles (6:24 pace)

I stopped to walk for a minute, and then cooled down a bit.

The run on the 15th was "just" a long run as I noted in that tweet above. I ran easier for 2 miles, harder for 4.5, and then easier for 3+. My half mile splits in the 4.5 "harder" miles were 3:23, 3:28, 3:19, 3:15, 3:17, 3:10, 3:09, 3:08, and 3:00 (6:24 pace).

MY EFFORTS ON BOTH OF THOSE RUNS (A "HARD" TEMPO AND A "LONG RUN" WITH SOME HARDER MILES IN THE MIDDLE) HAD THE EXACT SAME PACE. There's a big difference between my "easy" and my "moderate" pace, but then from "moderate" to "hard" is pretty close. I have one "fast-ish" pace, and I can't go any faster right now. So I need to work on the speed!!

This starts today. Off to the indoor track at my gym...