Two Good Runs with Charlie!

I can't call them "stroller runs" as I usually do, because the 2nd run was with Charlie at the track, and I did NOT push the stroller around the track while doing intervals.

On Tuesday, Charlie and I hit the Greenway Trail for a long run. But it was in the mid-40s when we started, so I had to have him bundled up:

I wanted to go about 10 miles, but I didn't know how hard I wanted to run. After 2 easier miles, I figured I'd pick it up, but I had no real goals. It turns out, I ended up running pretty fast! Here's my half-mile splits for the next 6 miles:

3:17, 3:14, 3:10, 3:08, 3:05, 3:06, 3:07, 3:01, 3:03, 3:02, 3:04, 2:52

Mile splits of 6:31, 6:18, 6:11, 6:08, 6:05, and 5:56

37:14 for 6 miles (6:12 pace)

THOSE ARE MY FASTEST "HARD MILES DURING A LONG RUN" ALL WINTER/SPRING! And most of those were on the treadmill, or without pushing a stroller!!

On Thursday, Charlie and I headed to the track for some 400 repeats. I'm pretty sure I'll be doing a track meet in 6 days (not sure the distance, but either 1500 or 5000), and I wanted to throw in some "track speed." So we warmed up in the stroller down Summit Ave for 2 miles:

A bit blurry in the shade.


On the track, making some doodles on his Post-It notes.


He wanted to stretch like Daddy. Apparently, this is how I stretch.

Had I been paying attention, I would have done this track workout a week earlier to fit in a 2nd track workout before the race. But I lost track of my weeks. Oops. I did 8 x 400 with 60 sec rest. Simple. Brutal. I did this workout on a hot day last year, and I ran a 76, then a 72, and then the rest were 73. (But this time, it'd be nice and cool.) Much like the long run 2 days before, I didn't have any real goals. Here I just wanted to run HARD.

I was happy when the first one was 73. And then the 2nd one was 73 as well. I felt like my form was shot by the 4th one, but my times were dropping. It was brutal, but SUCH a good workout for only 2 miles of running! I ended up running:

73
73
72
72
71
71
71
70

Yes, really. I dropped those nicely!

Now let's see if they can help me on the track this weekend. More on that shortly!