CTS 761: Warm again

Had to hit the Best Buy and the Target today to get some gift cards for a co-worker's wedding.

Warm again, finally. The last two runs (CTS 759, CTS 760) were defined by their coldness - about 39 degrees. Yesterday's run came with an incredibly brutal arctic wind that forced me to run with a windbreaker that I don't typically need for that temperature.

My speed is back, pretty much to how I ran when I was in my 20s. No need now to wonder how much I've lost over time.

Time: 3 p.m.
Temp: 50 degrees
Distance: 3.53 miles
Gear: SST (Las Vegas), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 758: A bank, more rain

Had to slog it out in mist/light rain today as I went to a bank. Came back through Little Five Points and then decided to head down Euclid to Elizabeth and then North Highland to the PATH back to North Highland, following the last part of my old Middlebear course.

My pace in general was pretty good today and I'm running up to race speed now.

Time: noon
Temp: 59 degrees
Gear: light windbreaker, SST (El Paso), shorts, hat, AP/D1.

Peachtree 10K to return to Piedmont

Yay! No more grueling rolling hills on Juniper at the end of the race!

Story here.

CTS 757: Work, the cornerstone

I sold some tickets to the March Britney Spears concert on the 'Hub so I decided to run them into work today.

I'm finding this 7-mile run is the cornerstone of my weekly mileage - it's pretty pleasant without being too rote.

It was an easy-going run all around. I went without the iPod today, just mainly out of forgetting to bring it. I've found that as my pace has developed, the iPod has been helpful for bringing me along.

In the past when I didn't have a great running base down, it wouldn't matter what song was playing -- I'd have to stop for a little bit.

It was 49 degrees, really the borderline for a CFLST -- I appreciated the long sleeves at times but the synthetic fiber up against a sweaty body doesn't feel that great. I probably could have lived with a cotton LST.

Time: 2 p.m.
Temp: 49 degrees
Gear; CFLST, SST (Thrashers), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 756: Bringing out the D2s

I finally ran in my AP/D2s for the first time since I knew I'd be doing a short run with a 10:30 a.m. work start.

Boy, new shoes are hard to run in! My right foot felt contorted for part of the time but on the way back everything was ok.

Time: 9:30 a.m.
Temp: 39 degrees
Gear: windbreaker, CFLST, SST, running pants, gloves, hat, AP/D2.

CTS 754: Legs expended

As I've mentioned previously, my legs have been sore the last few days with a 7+ mile run and a near 6-miler.

I tried to get some carbs (beer) into the legs late Thursday night and I felt fine when I woke up this morning. But soon into the run, I could tell that my legs were pretty spent still.

Made a light run of it though, still put up a nice effort on the Virginia Avenue hill toward N. Highland.

Time: 12:50 p.m.
Temp: 56 degrees
Gear: SST (Gold Coast), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 753: Warm again

Even though I went and did laundry today I didn't want to end up with a 2-mile run, so I did some errands and came back home.

I headed out for the park with a goal of doing a 4-mile run to give me an even 20 miles for the week.

I did a little more than that in the really great weather that reminded me of spring -- I went up 14th Street to Peachtree and ran down my old route to the Borders on the edge of Buckhead.

Was really happy with my speed. My legs are a little sore now, as they were yesterday after the 7-miler.

Time: 3:30 p.m.
Temp: 51 degrees
Distance: 5.84 miles
Gear: SST (Carolina), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 752: The work run

Ran to work today to sell a pair of Celtics-Pistons tickets on StubHub.

It probably was the coldest work run yet and I really procrastinated for a long time before heading out. But as soon as I was out I knew it wouldn't be too bad.

I liked my pace on the entire run. Lost the satellite reception in the building and I think it took a while for it to reacquire because it was showing silly pace times like 6:21 for a while. lol

Time: 3:15 p.m.
Temp: 39 degrees
Distance: 7.24 miles
Gear: CFLST (Weather Channel half), SST (MGM Grand), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 751: The inauguration donut

Today I ran to the Krispy Kreme to pick up my free donut as part of the inauguration.

Only thing was, it was cold again and there were 20-30 mph winds that pushed the temperature of 29 degrees down to 18 or 19 degrees with the wind chill.

My left hand was pretty cold. On the way back, I ducked into Trader Joe's to warm up that hand and my left ear tip. Gloves and skullcap next time.

The other gear, gearwise, was perfect. I'm still doing really well running up hills.

Am also thinking I'll need to break out the new D2s now that my shoes are nearing 300 miles.

Time: noon
Temp: 29 degrees
Distance: 3.35 miles
Gear: windbreaker, CFLST (William's run), SST (Levi), running pants, AP/D1.

CTS 750: To honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today when I set out I wasn't sure where I was headed. I thought about stopping by the grocery store for some groceries, but about a minute into the run I decided I would go and pay my respects at the tomb for Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

This run initialy was confounded by some overweight guy and his dog trying to blaze a trail down North Highland.

Normally I am fine with people running faster than me on the other side of the street but dude seemed to make it a point to be running faster than me.

When he got on my side of the street and turned into the PATH, it was on. It didn't take me much time at all to pass him and I continued on up to the Highland Avenue overpass.

I turned there and then cut through the neighborhoods until I got to the King Center. My legs really felt like they are not used to race pace.

I followed all of the other people who were properly bundled up and paid my respects before the tomb. On the other side of the street, a huge TV screen was letting people hear the sermon inside Ebenezer Baptist Church.

I didn't have much time before I had to go to work and at the time I even lamented that I was closer to work (I could see my office building) than I was at home.

A photographer said: "You're not freezing right now?" I made a running motion and told him I ran there.

I turned up Boulevard and connected back on the PATH at Freedom Parkway. At the time I was wearing my iPod and listened to Young Jeezy songs on the way back. It was the first time in a long time that I ran with it. I don't really like running with it for fear that I can't hear anything but I did it this time because I was on the PATH for most of my run.

Time: 12:30 p.m.
Temp: 42 degrees
Distance: 4.91 miles
Gear: CFLST, SST (Race for Research), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 749: Finally, a warm day

Didn't have much time to run, especially as I was still thinking about how much gear I'd have to wear today.

But alas. Finally a warm day, above 40 degrees. I wore shorts and my usual gear for that temperature and was happy.

Saturday the weather was a bit warmer than before (30 degrees). I took off my hat a few minutes into the run.

Time: 9:45 a.m.
Temp: 42 degrees
Gear: CFLST, SST (Carolina), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 747: Still cold

Even waiting as long as I could today, I couldn't escape the cold weather. Another 25 degree run.

Thankfully I had experience from the other day. I made some changes -- I wore a Novarra skullcap that I bought for biking to work -- it has ear covers.

I also wore my old North Face Ultrawick running pants. They are a lot better for warmth than the Nike pants I wore the other day.

Just under a mile into the run, I warmed up enough to take off one of my gloves. I just pulled the sleeves over it. I kept the other glove on because the GPS watch is so big it's hard to pull the sleeves over it.

I did feel pretty warm -- next time I may experiment with a CFLST instead of the Ultrawick middle layer.

Time: 12:10 p.m.
Temp: 25 degrees
Gear: windbreaker, North Face Ultrawick middle layer, SST (El Paso), North Face Ultrawick running pants, Nike Thermafit gloves, Novarra skullcap, hat, AP/D1.

CTS 746: Laundry run, leftside

I took my clothes to the laundry around 4 p.m. and then set off down North Avenue to Moreland and along East Ponce to the PATH connector near Candler.

PATH back to North Avenue and back to the laundry. A few miles.

Weather was pretty cold. I was pretty lighty dressed but it was okay.

I like how I'm doing the hills with no problems.

Time: 3:50 p.m.
Temp: 36 degrees
Gear: CFLST, SST (Vegas), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 745: Blog-record cold

My parents are in town so I decided to run a little earlier than normal.

Oh, man, it's cold! My layers were good, although my hat would only cover one tip of one of my ears or the other.

Only saw one runner. More power to her.

Time: 8:30 a.m.
Temp: 25 degrees
Gear: windbreaker, North Face Ultra Wick middle layer, SST, pants, gloves, hat, AP/D1.

CTS 742: Back to the park

This morning I dutifully got up and made my way to, and around, Piedmont Park. It's a nice run for Sunday morning because not many people are up and about in the morning, unlike Saturday mornings when you get all kinds of weekend warriors mulling about.

I was pretty happy with my overall speed, especially at the part of the park I call the Middle Earth stairs, just old stone stairs that go up near the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

I looped back by my old place on Argonne Avenue and back to 8th Street where I passed by the high school and through the Midtown strip mall before going back on Virginia.

I used to really hate running up the Virginia Avenue hill, but I like it now that my speed and leg strength is pretty close to racing form. I know these paces don't mean anything but I was hitting 7:13 up it.

I could see my breath coming back when I was running up the hill. I think this is the coldest day (41 degrees) that I've run in a while.

I've seen some posted routes by other people on MapMyRun.com and I'm hoping to just extend my old routes, like my Emory route, for more distance.

Time: 9 a.m.
Temp: 41 degrees
Gear: CFLST (Williams' Walk and Run), SST (Gold Coast), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 741: Laundry run, version 2

Because my work schedule is a little earlier than it usually is today, I set my alarm and got up when I wanted to, about 8:45 a.m.

Had a ton of laundry so headed out there to get there early and do a loop while my clothes churned.

Went down Freedom Park, cut over on Oakdale and back on McDonough. Did L3 from the old Middlebear course pretty well, then followed the end of that old course on Euclid, over to Elizabeth, back to North Highland and the Freedom Park PATH. On that last hill by The Carter Center, I was on a 7:13 pace! lol

For the first time in weeks, my legs felt fresh for this just-under-3 mile run. I think it was having an extremely light day on Friday. I think this is why people have rest days, lol.

Time: 9:03 a.m.
Temp: 45 degrees
Gear: CFLST, SST (Falcons red), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 738: To Philips Arena

I ran downtown today to get a 7+ mile run in and to get tickets for the Magic-Hawks game.

As usual, my legs were stiff at about a mile or so but I kept myself going, thinking they would loosen up at some point.

And they did. I ran up the hills pretty well, no real problems other than it was extremely windy.

Time: 3:15 p.m.
Temp: 50 degrees
Gear: LST (Ted's), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 737: Emory route, near dark

I slept in and then went shopping for groceries and didn't have a chance to run until the very end of the day.

As usual, my legs felt very stiff for the first 1.5 miles. Then I pretty much felt a lot better.

This short 3.1-mile course is great because it has 9 hills, most pretty challenging.

Time: 5 p.m.
Temp: 70 degrees
Gear: SST, shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 736: The wall of the Middlebear

Went out, hoping to do the 7-mile Middlebear course that is a great race preparation route because of its giant hills.

But like usual, around the 2-mile mark I just didn't feel like I had it so I went home. Added a mile in the neighborhood to make it a little more than 4 miles.

I must have been coming over something because I still was pretty stuffed up.

CTS 735: A watched pot

Today I got up a little earlier than usual and headed out with a lap around Piedmont Park (including a stop over a the dog park) and added some extra segments in my 'hood to make it an even 4 miles.

Although I like the convenience of the Garmin GPS watch, I find I am constantly looking at it to find out how far I've gone and what pace I'm running. Of course, it becomes like a watched pot and I feel like I don't get anywhere.

Maybe I need to put a piece of tape over the distance part and just look at it when I get home.

I was pleased at my acceleration on the sets of stairs at Piedmont Park and the hills. My pace feels pretty leisurely; according to the watch, it's just slow. lol

Time: 9:45 a.m.
Temp: 57 degrees
Gear: SST (Las Vegas), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 733: Repo Cat

During the 8-day trip to Hawaii I left my car at a friend's near Candler Park. I wasn't able to pick it up yesterday so I had to get it this morning.

Of course, there was light rain/drizzle today. Finally used the Garmin watch after re-introducing it to the docking cradle I left behind on the trip and charging it up.

The run was ok. Haven't had a lot of time to run but I'm still on pace for 25 miles this week.

Time: 10 a.m.
Temp: 42 degrees
Gear: windbreaker, hat, CFLST, SST (Levi), shorts, AP/D1.

CTS 732: Year Three, Day One

After landing, unpacking, cleaning out the kitty litter and taking a nap, decided on a short run to do some errands.

Felt a little colder than what I was used to. I thought my legs would be more tired because of what little sleep I had but it was ok. I probably could have run more, but why push it?

Traveling from halfway across the Pacific gets you an easy day.

Time: 4 p.m.
Temp: 48 degrees
Gear: CFLST, SST (Blue Chip), shorts, AP/D1.