Evening Run

I got out for an easy run tonight. I bought some new socks and windpants today so I tried them out. They worked pretty well. I guess I am not very picky on my clothing. I am still enjoying my Cascadia 4 shoes. I ended up running about 4.5 miles. It took me about 36 minutes. My log says that my average was 7:53 per mile. I also completed 5 sets of 10 pushups in between my stretches as I cooled down. I think this weekend, I am going to try to really get after it and start my training for Earth Day Half Marathon.

Two Hours of Shoveling

Today's workout was shoveling snow. It is kind of a tedious job, but I had to make sure there was a path for my in-laws to get to our place later tonight. It was pretty slippery out as well. I only fell on my butt once, but almost fell about 50 times.



I was at it for an hour and a half when the city plow came by and made a waist high pile of snow at the end of my driveway. At first this annoyed me, but the packed snow was easier to shovel than the drifts, so it wasn't so bad. I was amused that I was more efficient at shoveling snow than the guy across the street who was trying to use a snow blower.



After 2 hours, I finally had a path that one vehicle could fit through. I was pretty happy and starting to work on a path for the second car to go through when my neighbor came by with the loader. It took him about 6 minutes to clear out the rest of the snow in our twinhome split driveway. He cleared out a lot more snow than I had shoveled over the past two hours. Oh well, at least is was a good workout.

Monday Night Intervals

I got out for some speedwork on Monday night. The two block circle I ran was approximately 600M. I did a warm-up lap with my dog, then put her in to complete the rest. I ran 6 loops:
Lap 1 - 2:07 (a little too fast)
Lap 2 - 2:20
Lap 3 - 2:24
Lap 4 - 2:21
Lap 5 - 2:25
Lap 6 - 2:24

These didn't seem to bad. In high school, I hated running 600M intervals and much preferred either 400 or 800. I really want to work on speedwork for awhile as I have been neglecting these types of workouts. I was pretty cold after 6 loops so I called it quits. Next time, I hope to do 8 loops.

New Kicks

Last week the Brooks Cascadia 5s came out. I have been looking at trail shoes for quite awhile and read a lot of good things about the Cascadias. Once the 5s came out, the 4s dropped $30 at REI. Once reduced, I purchase a pair last Sunday. I was pretty excited all week to get them and they came today. I got out for a 4 miles and they worked great. They grip packed snow alot better than my road shoes. The still slip a on glare ice, but for the most part, they do a much better job on the snow. I'm looking forward to doing a couple trail races in them this year also.

2010 Race Schedule and Goals

I came up with my 2010 race calendar today. I might make some changes here and there. I also want to pick up a few more local 5ks & 10ks when I find out about them. I think this should keep me busy throughout the year. Other goals for 2010 include logging 1,000 miles during the year, dropping my weight to under 200 lbs, and actually spend time stretching and doing core work on my rest days.

Saturday Morning Run

I got out for 6.1 miles this morning. It was kind of cool out, but I made it through the run. The pace was 8:04 per mile. The last two miles were the worst, as I doubled back into the wind. I survived though. Like my dad would say, it was the kind of run "that puts hair on your chest." Unfortunately, I am already hairy enough.

Childbirth Education

No running tonight as I have night #2 of childbirth education. We will work on breathing exercises for Emily tonight. I probably wouldn't have gone out running anyways as there is a wind chill advisory out. It is currently -7 that feels like -23 according to weather.com. I usually don't mind winter, but am having a touch time adjusting to the 40+ degree drop in temp over the past week. I like the temp to slowly drop to get me acclimated to the change. Not this year. A couple weeks ago it was 50, now its -10.

Morning 5k

It feels good to start the week out with a run. This morning, it was only 10 degrees out, but I was able to get myself up and outside for a early morning run. I probably could have worn another top layer, but I stayed fairly warm throughout the run. I ran the 3.25 loop in 25:44.

Emily and I have baby classes in the evenings this week so I am going to try to get most my runs completed in the morning. Only six more weeks (give or take) until there is a new Parrill in the world. We've had a couple baby showers now so we are getting lots of presents. I worked quite a bit this weekend to get the nursery ready for the baby to move in.

Old Fashioned Whoopin

We got killed last night in basketball. Part of the problem was that we only had 6 guys and the other team had 10+, but the main problem was that we were missing our shots and they were making their shots. I played all but about 5 minutes of the game. I guess I got about 3 miles of running in on the game.

First Day of Snow

Today we got our first snow. Quite a bit came down. Naturally, I had to go for a run in it. I ended up going 5.75 miles on my Point Bridge loop in 48:24. I was looking back at my average pace when I started training for Fargo Half Marathon in January. I am a little slower right now. I averaged 8:24 over my run today. I would like to get a little faster as I am planning to run the Earth Day Half Marathon in April this year. I was looking at Brian's blog and like his idea of short speed work one day, a middle distance run one day, and a long distance run one day. I might try to mix in another run in there somewhere as well. I watched Prefontaine tonight on Hulu. The movie got me excited about the upcoming racing season.