T 8/28/07 4 miles 42 minutes
5:40 am

Check it out. I am almost ready to call myself a morning runner. I love seeing the sunrise on the water. If I go out early enough I have no glare in my eyes. This morning, I actually got up early enough to get in my run and get to my job on time - including the 70 minute drive. I am not up early enough to actually blog about my run which is why this is getting posted at 8 in the evening.

I do fill out my excel spreadsheet.
I made a little calendar to see if I can determine a pattern of when I have difficulty fitting in runs. One generalization I can make is that large disturbances to my schedule affect my run. When my nephew was here I ran not a bit. When I am on trips I rarely run. When I have big work events that take days of preparation - no run. Did I already say that I am hoping that by becoming a morning runner I will mitigate these anomalies?
On another tab I have a list of all my runs and the distance color coded by month. So far, months that start with "A" are winning any sort of contest. This is how I know that I have logged so many miles on my sneakers. This tab was supposed to be my race times but it expanded. On a third tab I have my mile times for my standard route. some day I want to compare my different speeds on different parts of the trail.

Todays run was my first after a "long" run. It felt really good. I miss my long runs.

S 8/26/07 6 miles 68 minutes
9:30 am

A and I are back from our retreat in the mountains. I am continuing on my quest to become a morning runner but not so successfully. I was not able to run yesterday because i needed to sit and do nothing instead.

Everyone knows this by now but it is still blog worthy. On the way home from the retreat we stopped and got A the iPhone. We were driving right past a mall with an Apple store. We are usually 100 miles from the closest Apple store so I just felt like it was time. Although in retrospect, A had no idea that we were that close to mecca. And now today we will have to drive 75 miles to an AT&T store to get all hooked up with a new plan and phone for me. After 2 years, I was just starting to like my old phone. What does this have to do with running? Nothing.

You might have noticed that I ran 6 miles. What you might not have noticed was that I did it in new sneakers. Yeah! New Sneaker Day. Maybe it is not good to buy a pair of sneakers one day and wear them on a 6 mile run the next day.

Th 8/23/07 about 4 miles about 42 minutes
6:30 am

A and I are still at a retreat in the mountains. I am continuing on my quest to become a morning runner. I think I need new shoes. It has been more than a year. According to my spreadsheet I have logged more than 150 miles on these shoes since January. After my third day in a row, I am starting to feel some ache in my shins. I am planning on a rest day tomorrow. Depending how I feel I will try to do a long run on Saturday. I am back to defining a long run as anything over 5 miles, rather than anything over 8 miles.

W 8/22/07 about 4 miles about 42 minutes
6:00 am (okay, more like 6:20 but who's counting?)

A and I are at a retreat in the mountains. I am continuing on my quest to become a morning runner. I have decided not to worry about running every day. If I try to run everyday something will invariably get in my way - and then I have a rest day.

T 8/21/07 about 4 miles about 42 minutes
6:00 am

A and I are at a retreat in the mountains. I am continuing on my quest to become a morning runner. I really like how I feel after I run. And I sleep better at night.

I was here last year so I knew that I could just run down the road towards town and that would take about twenty minutes out and back. The sunrise on the mountains is beautiful.

S 8/12/07 4 miles 43.2 minutes
6:45am 54 degrees; cloudy.

stinky around the water treatments plant. This has been a norm for morning runs - I don't like it.
I was feeling a bit sore in the shins last night but not this morning. Not so many people on the trail in the mornings on the weekend as there were on Friday morning. If I go tomorrow it will be interesting to make note of. Saw Martha again.

S 8/11/07 3 miles 33.6 minutes
6:00am 60 degrees; cloudy.

Day two of running in the morning. I only went 3 miles because this is the first time I have really run two days in a row. I didn't want to strain myself.

F 8/10/07 4 miles 43.6 minutes
6:00am 60 degrees; cloudy.

I am trying a new thing - morning running. We will see how it goes. I saw Martha on the trail.