I was supposed to run 8 miles Saturday, but I am still not mentally to where I want to run outside when the weather is in the teens and the wind is out of the northwest. That makes the wind chill single digits no matter how you add it up. I vowed not to do another treadmill run over 3 miles, so it was going to have to be an indoor track run. The track isn't so bad--7 laps to a mile. It just gets crowded fast. Eight miles, 56 laps. After reading Tri-Daddy's advice about using a heart rate monitor or, my tried and true pacing doing my walk run, I decided to stay with the walk run for now. According to him, it took 6 months, but he was able to lower his per mile pace by running 2 min. slower for his per mile pace in his long runs. That is almost impossible for me to do, so it had to be the walk run thing for now.

The track also is quite nice because it reveals a panorama view of the city, since the walls are mostly glass. I can see the highway, my work, all the fast food restaurants in the area, the Amtrack, etc. So enough to keep your interest, if watching the people on the track wasn't enough. They finally changed the running and walking lanes so the runners have the outside lanes and the walkers have the inside lanes, although you knew not many had read the signs. The majority of walkers were still on the outside lanes, so I made it a point as often as it was necessary to let them know they needed to move.

I really didn't do too badly as far as the mental part until I got to 30 laps and realized I was going to run out of time to get to my 12 pm massage appointment. I started calculating and realized I really was only going to have time to do 6 miles, or 42 laps, and I was pushing it at that. So I started doing one of my "from the past" speed drills--run fast for 40 seconds, run slowly for 20--40/20s. It makes the time and miles go by quicker. But I was still only going to make it 6. So I decided that was going to be it. No stretching, nothing after, just hit the showers and get to my appointment.

The massage was great. Maggie is the best massage therapist I have ever had, and I've had my share of bad ones. She has helped me free up my shoulder after the dog walking/injury incident. She is helping me keep my sartorius muscle from staying frozen in place (after going to another therapist for 3 months and having her accomplish NOTHING with this), as well as helping me get my foot back in shape. Wish I could go every week.