Time Crunch = "Speed Work"

So, Tuesday has once again rolled around. After last weeks somewhat disappointing news at the doc's I was hoping for a clean break today. Alas things colluded and my day was sold somewhat short.

My alarm went off early but I lay there feeling blah. No other word for it really. I listened to the radio for a while then dragged my carcass out of bed and got a cup of coffee from the machine I had set to come on for Alison at 530. I turned on the lap top on the kitchen counter and sipped my coffee. It was half light outside. I had planned to take Sam to school and to have my mountain bike on the car and to ride from his school. I realized that I hadn't put the rack on last night and that I would have to drag it out of the garage, put it on the car and check the bike. I found reasons not to do this. Ok plan B. Run instead of cross train. Better idea.

I got Sam up and dressed and had him at school a little early. I had dressed for running so all I had to do was stretch, put on my Garmin and go right. Well, no not really. I couldn't find my woolly hat, my gloves or my Garmin. Ah, you have guessed it. They were all hiding in the mudroom where I had last left them. Grrr.

I finally made it out of the house after a shorter than usual stretching session. Then my Garmin would not lock. It finally did and I was off with MP3 tunes spurring me on. I decided I had enough time for maybe a 2 mile run. Ok I thought, Speed Work. Ha. A Hippo doing speed work, this ought to be good.

Living in the bottom of a funnel, I set off up THE steepest hill and was quickly reduced to fast walking. On I plodded until I reached the circuit road that rings the Valley. From here I started to run at an even pace, nothing fast though. Once on the flat I began to slowly increase my pace. The hard part was the ice on the sidewalks. Although my trusty Asics Trebuco's were on my feet, this was ice that had melted and refrozen over a couple of days. It was pretty slick. I pressed on walking where it was unsafe and running where I could.

I eventually turned into one of the cuts to the open space and followed this all the way through to the stables at the bottom. This path had been scraped but had remained crunchy and footing was good. I eventually turned to the south and entered the big open space. I crossed the dam and made it home without incident. I had just enough time to spare to have a shower before picking up Sam from school.

So kind of a crummy workout BUT my pace was higher than it had been at the Turkey Day race in Highlands Ranch. I am a little unhappy at the way things are going right now.