Wakefield Winters

So New England winters can be annoying when it comes to running.  I don't overall mind it, I have a bigger problem with the town I live in and their lack of clearing any sidewalks.  Considering how narrow the roads are to begin with it makes it pretty difficult to run safely at night.  So most of my winter running as long as their is snow covering the sidewalks will be done in Wakefield.  Not that it's really a problem it's not too far away and since in the nicer months in the cases I do end up running I don't normally run there because there are better options so I don't get too sick of it during the winter.

Well since it is now 3:30 in the morning, I should say that Monday(no longer yesterday) I ran the lake with Jim Johnson and got in 2 laps which totaled 7 miles.  We ran it in just over 54 minutes which isn't too bad of a pace for me.  I felt awful starting out, Jim had shown up early to do a quick lap before I got there so he was warmed up well and going quicker than I would have liked for the first half of the first lap.  I paid for that the rest of the run.

Tonight(well last night since it was 10 hours ago)  I headed back to the lake to take an easy lap around, and from my start and finish point it's 3.4 miles.  I felt pretty weak at the start of the run, but I also felt loose.  I didn't need to warm up to run a quicker than normal pace but I didn't feel like I could sustain it very long.  Instead of trying to hold myself back I just went with it and figured I'd see what happens.  I covered the 3.4 in 25:21 which is 7:21 pace I think, either way without checking back at previous runs I'm pretty sure that is the fastest I've done any run since I've been keeping track again.

Definitely more encouraging information, also despite my lack of running in the recent past I still have managed to start losing weight.  Not that it's really a surprise I was doing regular runs before the holidays hit, but it's nice to see the weight start to come off as I've dropped 3 lbs.  Now All I have to do is keep it up so I can make it back down to the 140 range.  Maybe at that point my shin will stop hurting though I'm not sure if my rolled ankle will be completely healed by then, it doesn't affect anything but I still notice the pain now and again.

As to my yearly goal of getting a minimum of 2,010 miles in I'm certainly behind after the missed days.  A total of 17.66 right now when I should be at 27.5.  I figured I'd start off behind considering I'll be doing 3 mile short runs instead of 5 but still i've missed more days than I should have.  It shouldn't be an issue to make up seeing how I'd like to get up to 70 miles per week by the spring which should be easily doable.  If that is actually accomplished I'd be caught up rather quickly.