Andrew Schrauben

Amanda isn't a big fan of running in cold weather, but she was tired of riding the stationary bike, too. We finally decided to "sneak" her into the fitness center at work - technically they don't want employees to bring family members there since it's a small facility, but who's going to be there early Sunday morning? Nobody, as it turned out - we arrived at 8am to a dark, empty fitness center and hopped on two of the treadmills. Amanda convinced me to bring my iPod, which was a good idea.

It's not often I get to run next to Amanda for any significant length of time, so this was pretty fun for me - we were running for an hour. Her plan was to alternate running and walking every five minutes, but she got bold and ran the entire last 15 minutes! I think she went 4.0 miles in 60 minutes via 25 minutes walking and 35 running, which is an impressive workout for her.

My plan initially was to run easy, about a 9:00 pace. However after 2.0 miles it was feeling too easy so I began incrementing the treadmill speed every mile. At 5.0 miles I was at an 8:30 pace and feeling strong so I got impatient and started ratcheting up the speed more frequently and in larger jumps. Soon I was running 7:30, then 7:00, and finally I ran a 6:00 pace for minutes 56:30 through 59:00, then ran the last minute at an 8:00 pace. I swear, the faster I ran the better I felt - almost as though I were designed to be a sprinter? I crossed the imaginary finish line of 7.1 miles in 60:19, an overall ~8:30 pace which for that distance is fast for me, but I don't feel overly worn out. Cool!

We rewarded ourselves with breakfast at Burger King, then did grocery shopping and finally headed back out to pick up our latest foster dog Joyce! She's been a real sweetie so far.