Sure you'll be ready by 7

Day 303 - July 5, 2008

Didn't make it up before the alarm this morning but I was ready to crawl out of that death-trap of a pull-out sofa as soon as possible. As if that monstrosity wasn't uncomfortable enough, our 7 year old decided she needed to sleep in it as well last night. Can you say no sleep!

Anyway - not that that has anything to do with running. Getting up early was worth it. Today was another perfect morning for running. If my legs had not been so tired from yesterdays 7+ miles followed by a day of walking around the zoo, I'm sure I would have gone for another long run today. Instead I settled for a 23 minute 3.3 mile out and back. I thought I needed to be back by 7am so I was pushing it. Turns out no one else was awake when I got back so there was no hurry.

Finishing early has one extra benefit - now I get to sit here in Panera, sipping my coffee and post using the free WI-FI, while everyone fights over the one tiny bathroom. Ain't life grand.

Day: 303 Time/Date: 6:30 AM 7/5/2008 Weather: Clear, 59F
Run: Cleveland Running Miles: 3.3 Time: 23:08 Pace: 7:01 min/mile
Miles to Date: 985.6 Total Running Time: 120:48:08

Ironically 1 tenth of a mile short

Day 302 - July 4, 2008

Happy Independence Day! I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm this morning and decided to make the best of it. I was stiff as a board from sleeping on the 58 year old sleeper sofa and I figured no additional sleep was going to help that. I gave myself 30 minutes to work out the creaks, then set out on a perfect weather morning. Our annual trek to Cleveland is usually welcomed with high temperatures in the 100s and lows in the 90s - I'm not kidding - one year the house never got below 92 degrees the entire weekend. Today, it was 57 when I stepped outside with zero wind or humidity.

The area of Cleveland that we are visiting has to look like a sheet of graph paper from the sky, so there is almost no chance of getting lost. The neighborhoods are also very old, so there were lots of mature trees to run under and perfectly landscaped, manicured lawns surrounding Craftsman style houses. With no particular goal for where to run to, I ran against the watch and just meandered from block to block. At 26ish minutes, I decided to head back and retrace my steps. Gmap-pedometer tells me the run total was 7.3 - seems like I should have found another 0.1 somwhere to run 7.4 on the 4th of July - Oh well.

It was a perfect run this morning - no pressure to be back, no traffic to dodge, no loose dogs to avoid. If I could have mornings like this everyday I'd be renaming the blog 10000000 Days of Running.

Day: 302 Time/Date: 6:45 AM 7/4/2008 Weather: Clear, 57F
Run: Cleveland Running Miles: 7.3 Time: 52:55 Pace: 7:15 min/mile
Miles to Date: 982.3 Total Running Time: 120:25:00

Heading out

Day 301 - July 3, 2008

I've got another 9 hour car ride today so I decided to take it easy on the miles and get out early. The clouds were just starting to pink up as I headed out and at least gave me something worthwhile to look at so early in the day. I don't think I like running before 6am, but 6am in July is way better than 6am in December.

Day: 301 Time/Date: 5:40 AM 7/3/2008 Weather: Clear, 58F
Run: Amicus 2 mile Miles: 2.0 Time: 15:05 Pace: 7:32 min/mile
Miles to Date: 975 Total Running Time: 119:32:05

300 Days and finally off the 15

Day 300 - July 2, 2008

Today is a day to celebrate for me - I finally made it to 300. I know I still have a long way to go to get to 1000, but somehow it seems more possible. It also is a time for an update on my cross-country journey. After 300 days of traveling north on Interstate 15, I finally have reached Idaho Falls and am turning East towards Jackson Hole and then north to Yellowstone.



To make the 4000 miles across country, I really need to get my daily average up and that is going to take some long runs. My goal for the next 1oo days will be to raise my daily average from the 3.2 miles I'm at now to 3.4.

Today's run was shorter than I had expected to do for the big day. I slept like garbage last night and my legs were dead when I rolled out onto the blacktop. So, bagging the long run I chose my favorite run - the 3.6 mile Davis run. It was a great morning and I really picked up the pace on the way back. I thought about going back out this evening if I had the time, but it didn't work out. So here I am, 300 days, 973 miles, and 119 hours into my streak. It is pretty cool to think that by next weekend I could hit 1000 miles. I know I should be well past 1000 already if I'm going to get to 4000, but still, 1000 miles in 10 months is pretty cool.

Thanks for hanging in for 300 days - I hope you'll keep checking back as I edge closer to 1000.

Day: 300 Time/Date: 7:15 AM 7/2/2008 Weather: Clear, 61F
Run: N Carnation-Davis Miles: 3.6 Time: 25:42 Pace: 7:08 min/mile
Miles to Date: 973 Total Running Time: 119:17:00

Cool Summer morning

Day 299 - July 1, 2008

Just an easy 2 mile run before tomorrow's big day.


Day: 299 Time/Date: 6:15 AM 7/1/2008 Weather: Clear, 57F
Run: Amicus 2 mile Miles: 2.0 Time: 15:03 Pace: 7:31 min/mile
Miles to Date: 969.4 Total Running Time: 118:51:18