More

Yeah. More snow. Big deal. I didn't have to be anywhere today, my husband got home last night because they cancelled his school for today so I didn't have to worry about him. It's an amazing amount of snow, though. Our fence is 3 feet high and you can barely make it out.

The plow never came though. I called the place we hired and she said "maybe tomorrow." Excuse, me? Maybe tomorrow? She said the plows are having a hard time, blah, blah, blah. Sounds like they have too many clients for the number of plows (I'm thinking 1) they have. My neighbor called me, pissed, and she wants to use another company. Fine. Good. Call them up and make it happen. As long as the company she wants to go with is taking on new houses then that's fine with me. I just hope the old one shows up sometime tonight because my poor dachshund needs to get dropped off at the vet tomorrow at 7:30 for his dental cleaning. He's going to be so groggy and cranky when he gets home, poor little guy. And while work wasn't expecting me to be there today I don't know how well it would go over if I said I couldn't get in tomorrow because of the snow. Although lots of schools are cancelled for tomorrow because there's no place to put the snow.

All this snow just means more time on the dreadmill. I did fartlek training today. It's the workout I dread every week and love every week. Today it went really well. Cross Fit was cancelled last night which gave me the much needed rest day I've been whining about and it really helped me to come back strong. The next part is of no interest to anyone but myself but it's my running blog so I'm blogging my run:

Warmup
4.0 mph (2 min)
5.7 mph (3 min)
5.8 mph (2.5 min)
5.9 mph (2.5 min)

Intervals
6.5/5.5 mph (2 min each)
6.6/5.6 mph (2 min each)
6.7/5.7 mph (2 min each)
6.8/5.8 mph (2 min each)
6.9/5.9 mph (2 min each)
7.0/6.0 mph (2 min each X 3)
7.1/6.1 mph (2 min each)
7.2/6.2 mph (2 min each)
7.3/7.4 mph (1 min each)
6.4 mph (2 min)

Cooldown
6.0 mph (30 sec)
5.5 mph (30 sec)
4.0 mph (1 min)

Today it came out to be 6.26 miles with an overall pace of 9:35 min/mile. That's great because 14 minutes of the hour is at 10 min/mile or slower. When I have workouts like this -- a 10K in under an hour! -- it gives me hope but then I remember stuff like this treadmill conversion chart. I know that's not my outside pace. According to that it's at least 25 seconds slower. Wind, hills, and the pavement all work against me. It might be some day though if I keep working at it. I looked at my Runkeeper log and on October 19th I ran 8.09 miles at a 9:39 min/mile pace. Of course, I was at the peak of my marathon training and it must have been the perfect running day. I can get there again. I just need to have the chance to run outside more!

Then again, I look at where I was a year ago. This is from January 29, 2010 and I realize how far I've come.

For today, I banged out 6.2 miles in the 80 minutes. That's a 10K!!! My overall pace was a little slower (12:54/mile) but slightly better than last week's long run and I'm okay going a little more conservatively when I'm trying to add a full mile onto the workout. I think I will stick with the 80 minutes for awhile since 6 miles is all I really should be doing that this point.

That's progress! I hope next January I have a post that says something like, "Ran 6-minute miles today, felt too easy though." HAHAHAHHA! Okay, maybe not something as dramatic as that. I'll be happy if I have another injury-free year with a few more tweaks in pace.