Andrew Schrauben

I ran twice today! Both were rather short, but remember I'm trying to improve speed this year. I noticed in my running logs for 2004, 2005 and 2006 that my average pace was right around 10:00 miles for all three years! While I've been going farther and farther, I haven't become much faster.

Well today was a decent start. O' dark thirty this morning I leashed up Haven to my brand new Just-a-Cinch leash that Amanda got me for Christmas and struck out under a bright, full moon. I started out fast and kept it up for 12 minutes before slowing for a couple, then I pretty much alternated fast and slow every two minutes until I got back home 2.9 miles later. We did it in 23 minutes, good for an 8:00 pace, so my first 12 minutes were probably 7:30 or so.

Funny story of the run was that Haven got freaked out by a Christmas tree! Someone had put their old live tree on the curb for pickup and in the moonlit darkness Havy must've thought it was a monster and wouldn't go anywhere near it!

By the way, that Just-a-Cinch leash is awesome! It has reflective fibers woven in for visibility, it has a round (instead of flat) cross-section, and best of all there's a slight amount of stretch to it so there's less jarring whenever Haven spots a squirrel and tries to take my arm off.

When I got home from work I felt like running some more, so I did. Wary of over-doing the mileage, I decided to do a short run and make up for the decrease in miles with an increase in speed. I even took both dogs with me! It started raining as soon as I walked down the driveway and it was a balmy 47 degrees out! Great running weather. The first minute felt good but at my fast pace I felt pretty wasted for the rest of the run. Luckily it only lasted 1.4 miles and it felt like 10-11 minutes. To my amazement when I finished my watch read 8:41 - that's a 6:12 pace!! Wicked. Earlier this summer I was happy to run a 1/4 mile lap on a track in 90 seconds (a 6:00 pace). Maybe the dogs were pulling me along a bit, but I also had to stop once to untangle their leashes.

Must remember to take it easy running tomorrow at work...