Well that is the first time in a long time that I have taken 3 days off, where I wasn’t injured or hurt in some form or manner. We are having our bathroom renovated and while it is disrupting things a bit, it isn’t that bad.

Well at least it wasn’t all that bad until somehow or another Elliott (our cat) decided that he wanted to investigate one of the holes that we thought was blocked and wasn’t able to get back. We thought that he had gotten out and well there was a small pack of coyotes just out back of the house that night not far from the house and we thought well – not good thoughts that night when we went to bed.

However, the next morning we heard some noise from under the house and when we investigated I saw a pair of green eyes and cat ears. However, he wasn’t willing to be coaxed close enough to be caught. That afternoon we bought a Save A Heart live trap and put food and cream in it. It took a while, but around 9:00 PM, the trap caught Elliott.

There was joy and relief in the house to say the least.

The rest of the renovation has been pretty uneventful and we now in the final stages and will be done next week, but we made sure it was pretty much impossible for Elliott to go exploring the bathroom escape route again.

Yesterday was all about repairing the underneath of the house where old duct tape finally was no longer working and also to repair where Elliott made some extra escape routes. Plus re-attaching the primary heating line to the front of the house, which did a great job of keeping Elliott warm while he was under the house.

So with everything going on, running was put on the back burner until this morning. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs outside and I decided after getting soaked on the morning Bennie walk (much shorter than usual), that I would be running on the treadmill today.

Surprisingly, the gym was not nearly as busy as I expected and I was able to get my usual treadmill without an issue.

Planned Workout Description vs Actual: Longer run – actual 7.0 miles with strides

Variables that impacted the run: 3 days of no running let the body heal a bunch of small niggles that have been hanging around for a while. Treadmill

Weather: Indoor – raining outside 

• • • • Day: Saturday
      • Course: PF Treadmill
      • Distance: 7.0 miles
      • Duration: 59:04
      • Pace: 8:26
      • Running Streak Day #: 1
      • Comments:

I ran comfortably for the first half of the run and then picked up the pace a bit

• 2.0 @ 6.8 mph
• 2.0 @ 6.9 mph
• 1.0 @ 7.0 mph
• 0.9 @ 7.1 mph
• 6 x 0.1 @ 9.6 mph with 6.8 mph 0.1 recovery

I felt good during the first part of the run and decided to go a little quicker and still felt really strong. So I decided to start strides at 5.9 miles and got in all 6 at a hard for me pace, but one where I can keep form for the full stride.

Shoes: Mileage (246.6) – New Balance Beacon v2 – While the sole of the V2 are pretty well worn and I don’t like wearing them outside unless it is good conditions, but on the treadmill they work fine. The Beacon line of shoes are probably the best treadmill running shoes I have used in a long time, if ever. So I was able to run comfortably at easy paces and also when I decided to go fast for me.