Running in the Morning

The Stats 7/29/12 - 8/4/12
7/31/12: 2.12 mi; 15'50"; 7'27" avg. pace
8/2/12: 2.55 mi; 19'24"; 7'35" avg. pace
8/4/12: 3.17 mi; 27'47"; 8'45" avg. pace

I think I spent this entire week planning on running in the morning. Going to sleep with that on my mind did not prove helpful. It took until Tuesday evening to hit the pavement when I managed a short 2 miler. The heat probably played a role in stopping me before I could complete a 5k circuit, but also my conditioning is noticeably off. The second mile was nearly a full minute slower than the first on this run.
Thursday, my resolve to wake up and run finally won out. Although this run was also shy of 3 miles I improved my pace as the run progressed. That may be due to the nature of a morning run; you tend to wake up as you break a sweat. Feeling good about making it out Thursday morning had me wanting to repeat the effort Friday. Unfortunately, the snooze button proved irresistible and I left the training to the weekend.
The morning run on Saturday was atop lovely Snowshoe Mountain. Challenging inclines slowed me down as I just tried to make sure to dodge injury. I switched from the Newton's earlier in the week to my Nike Structure shoes on Saturday. I fear that they have all but lost their tread and cushioning though. Running in my Newton's has put stress on my left foot, mainly in the arch. I suspect that I'm actively stretching the foot with each strike instead of keeping the foot more or less straight during impact. The game plan going forward is to strike the ground evenly and not push off with the toes. We'll see how that goes.

Chillin' among the wild animals of the mountain

In event news, I've signed up for the Parkersburg Half Marathon on August 18th. Why? I'm not really sure other than because a friend asked me to do it and I had nothing on the calendar. I'm certainly not in shape for it, but if I wreck my body I'll have a month to prepare rest up for the Capital City Challenge. Oh boy.